


You start a fire inside that I could never control

by heart_eyes



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Mutants, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Banter, Denial of Feelings, Ed Sheeran/Eleanor Calder - implied, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Light Angst, M/M, Mutant Hate, Protective Zayn, READ AUTHOR'S NOTE FOR ADDITIONAL WARNINGS!!!, Surprise Tomlinshaw, elounor - past, superhero anonymous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-04-03 13:40:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4102993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heart_eyes/pseuds/heart_eyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“They call us freaks you know, in the local paper—on the news.” He said just above a whisper still cautious, as if admitting out loud that Jay's suspicions had been correct that secret service would jump out from where they were hiding just waiting for Zayn's confirmation before they carted him away to some lab somewhere for experimentation.</p><p>“That’s because they don’t understand, refuse to…it’s not like that everywhere though, in the bigger cities we’re more accepted not just tolerated so long as we stay hidden but praised for our abilities—they call us heroes.”</p><p>“What like Superman? Batman?” Zayn asked, tone mocking and full of doubt, but Jay’s next words chased the amusement right off his face.</p><p>“Exactly like them</p><p>(or the one where Zayn attends Heroes Anonymous meetings)</p>
            </blockquote>





	You start a fire inside that I could never control

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ifzi0531](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifzi0531/gifts).



> Ifzi0531, 
> 
> You asked for Xmen ziall and I could literally kiss you, I was so excited to write this for you, when i got my assignment i fell in love with all your prompts and actually tried my best to combine them all into a mega fic but due to certain events i had to nix a lot of my original plans for this fic all except for the superhero bits of course...then halfway through writing i remembered why i haven't yet written the superhero trope bc IT'S HARD lol, like i'm a huge fan and tip my hat to all those who have written superhero fic before me MUCH RESPECT. But hopefully i did a good enough job for you i *really* tried!!!
> 
> **additional warnings: there is mentions of a past suicide and self-harm, they're both super brief and neither is discussed in great detail. There's also a mention of rape, off screen as a hero stops it from taking place. The actual rape isn't described, just alluded to. And finally a warning for canon typical violence you'd expect in a superhero fic, nothing major though.
> 
> other then that enjoy :)
> 
> I have the best beta in the world and i dare anyone to fight me on this, no seriously lets take this outside! You know who you are, you are amazing and i owe everything to you--all the hugs, kisses, and naked zarry for you!!!

The guy behind the counter of Vinyl Destination—a tiny old time record shop that you’d think had been abandoned some time ago, given the area—gave Zayn a bored look as he glanced up from the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine. He was flipping through and it was an attest to how many of Zayn’s kind must come traipsing through the establishment, given that Zayn was currently in full uniform, all black spandex with flames along his outer arms and legs, his mask covering all but his eyes and mouth, and yet the guy had barely batted an eyelash.

Zayn shot the tinkling bell above the door a dubious eye roll - because really, who still had one those - and approached the counter where the man sat. He was tall and thin with a towering quiff that should have looked ridiculous but actually suited him. They stare at each other for a few beats before he silently tilts his head in question and the tall man shakes his own and chuckles.

“Go on then, meetings in the basement…just through that door there.” He drawls, gesturing to a thick wooden door to the left of the counter. Zayn tilts his head a second time in thanks and moves towards it.

As he makes his way down the stairs, he can already hear a faint murmur of voices and tries to recall what time the card said the group started, because the last thing he wanted was to walk in on a session already in progress, it was bad enough all eyes would be on him as it was for being the new guy. He didn’t need to go and give them another reason to gawk.

He was still new to city life, you see, having only moved a couple of months ago from a small rural town for school, was still new to this life where he didn’t have to constantly check himself, didn’t have to hide.

Back home was a different story. He’d barely used his abilities for good or otherwise, because his kind wasn’t accepted, too many closed-minded people too afraid to educate themselves and instead shunned those who are different through no fault of their own, but because their DNA dictated that they were to be different—mutants.

<><><>

Unlike most who were born with their abilities, Zayn hadn’t come into his powers until he was around thirteen came right in along with puberty, you can imagine his confusion when he had his first nocturnal omission and almost burned down his best mate Danny’s tree house all in the same week.

It wasn’t until he was fifteen and being bullied for being bi-racial by some dickhead in gym class that he slipped up…it wasn’t anything huge, didn’t burn the entire gym building down or anything, he just accidentally set the climbing rope on fire while Kalim was still halfway to the top.

No one would ever be able to connect the fire to him, not unless you _knew_ what to look for, noticing the unyielding concentration Zayn had on the rope at the time, saw the licking flames in his eyes.

He hadn’t wanted anything to happen to Kalim, despite what a huge asshole he’d been to Zayn the entire school year, he’d just wanted to scare him and that’s all he did do. Kalim had let go of the rope and fallen to the thick mat laid out under the rope for just that reason, unharmed save for a ruined pair of sneakers that he wouldn’t stop whining about.

Later that day Zayn felt someone following him on his walk home and could feel the heat in his fingertips as his body readied to protect itself, but when he finally whipped around, he was surprised to find an older kid from school, Jay Sean or summat, standing there with his hands up in front of him to show he meant no harm.

The two had never spoken before given they were three grades apart but Jay had been there in the gym today trying to make up a class he’d missed earlier in the school year, which immediately made the hairs on the back of Zayn’s neck go up, because had Jay seen something...did he know?

As if reading the questions in Zayn’s eyes Jay moved forward, hands still up in surrender as he slowly approached Zayn much like you’d do a skittish animal.

“I know what you are, mate.”

Zayn snorted. “What half poc, half wonder bread, not exactly news to anyone.”

“Not that, the other thing.” Zayn froze, but tried not to let it show.

“No idea what you’re on about, mate.”

“Sure you don’t, but let me show you something and then you can try again, yeah?” He cautioned, waiting for Zayn’s slow nod before squatting next to a patch of weeds, and after a quick glance around, waved his hand over the weeds and right before Zayn’s eyes, where weeds had once been was now a bed of healthy looking wildflowers.

Zayn sputtered, moving back without even realizing it. “What the—how’d you do that?”

“You know how, same way you set that rope on fire today during gym…I’m just like you, Zen.”

“Like me? There’s nothing wrong with me.” Zayn said with conviction, chin raised high and proud, daring Jay to argue with him.

“Didn’t say there was. It’s not wrong what we are, just _different_.” Jay assured standing once more.

“You…” Zayn trailed off, his voice gone a bit shaky realizing that he wasn’t alone anymore that for the first time he might’ve found someone who understood, who knew the pain and ridicule he had to live with day in and day out.

Jay nodded slowly, all his movements were done slowly so as not to spook him. "My ability is that I can manipulate the molecular structure of things, mostly inanimate objects but there’s a select few living things as well.”

“And in English that means what?

Despite the gravity of the situation Jay chuckled. “I can change objects like I did with the weeds.” He said gesturing to the vibrant wildflowers that looked out of place in the otherwise dilapidated neighborhood, then pressed a single finger to the wooden plank of a nearby fence and Zayn watched wide-eyed as it turned from white to red to purple then back to white in the span of a few seconds.

“They call us freaks, you know, in the local paper—on the news.” He said just above a whisper, still cautious, as if admitting out loud that Jay's suspicions had been correct that Secret Service would jump out from where they were hiding, just waiting for Zayn's confirmation before they carted him away to some lab somewhere for experimentation.

Jay sighed, a bone deep weary sound and looked away from the fence to meet Zayn’s eyes. He didn’t look angry like Zayn always felt, always so bitter at being judged for something out of his control, Jay just looked tired. Sad and tired.

“That’s because they don’t understand, _refuse_ to…it’s not like that everywhere, though, in the bigger cities we’re more accepted, not just tolerated so long as we stay hidden, but praised for our abilities—they call us heroes.”

“What like Superman? Batman?” Zayn asked, tone mocking and full of doubt, but Jay’s next words chased the amusement right off his face.

“Exactly like them, our kind swoops in and saves the day and get _commended_ for it, are even given medals on occasion.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not. I’ve seen it with my own two eyes—went to stay with family in London last summer, our kind was in the news nearly every day saving someone from something—helping in their own unique way and being thanked for it.”

Zayn was jarred, he didn’t know what to say—what to think, this all sounded too good to be true, could there really be such a place in the world? A paradise where he no longer needed to suppress his natural urges, didn’t have to hide this huge chunk of himself from everyone.

“So the people like-like us...”

“Mutants.” There it was, actually said aloud.

Zayn gulped and nodded.

“Yes _mutants_ , they just go about saving the world all willy-nilly like and are accepted, just like that?”

“Not quite, they still have to disguise themselves, keep their civilian identity a secret because for every good mutant trying to save the world, there’s two or three bad ones hell-bent on destroying it. Villains, Zayn, unfortunately they’re real too and the good guys have to hide their identities to protect the ones closest to them—the people they love.” Zayn shuddered at the thought of someone coming after his family in order to hurt him.

“Why are you telling me this anyway, it’s not like I’m going to become one of these vigilantes…I’ve just turned fifteen and live in one of the most closed-minded town’s in all of England, remember?”

“Yeah I know, I guess I just wanted to let you know you weren’t alone, that I’m here if you need anything? I saw what you did in that gym, recognized one of my own and wanted you to know there’s hope out there for us, ya know?”

“Yeah I get that and thanks, you’ve definitely given me something to think about, given me something look forward to.”

“Look forward to?”

“Now that I know what’s waiting for me out there, I’m more determined than ever to get out of this town.” Jay nodded his approval and offered to walk Zayn the rest of the way home.

They talked about so much in that one walk; their abilities, how they came into their powers and their family’s reactions, and even shared a few embarrassing stories of instances where their gift worked against them--it was honestly the best time Zayn’s had in a good long while.

They remain good friends up until graduation, Jay taking Zayn under his wing, mentoring him, helping him hone his powers, teaching him breathing exercises that help him control the fire in his veins.

Jay stays for a few months after graduation to tie up all his loose ends and to make sure Zayn will be alright without him - they’ve become close almost like family, so he had to make sure the younger lad was sorted before he left – as he headed for America to chase a career in music.

Of course Zayn would miss him, wasn’t sure if he was quite ready to be on his own again, but grateful that Jay had at least left him with the tools to get through it and wished his friend the best of luck at finding his dream because if anyone deserved it, he did.

<><><> 

Three short years later Zayn gets the acceptance letter in the mail to university and immediately emails Jay about it. They’d stayed in touch through the years, though the older boy never once returned home, not even to visit for holidays—Zayn understood it wasn’t easy to break away from the busy life of a recording artist lucky enough to work with such big names as Lil Wayne and Sean Paul, just to name a few.

Jay replied with his usual big brotherly advice to be careful, even in an open and accepting city such as London there were still a few discriminators, and of course villains, who would jump at the chance to crush him, and told him to watch for some mail from him.

When the package arrived Zayn tore it open to reveal a ‘city living’ starter kit complete with an oyster card for traveling within the city, two expensive looking shirts and a leather jacket, a copy of his new album (as if Zayn hadn’t camped outside HMV to buy it the first day) and a box of condoms, which Zayn rolled his eyes at, then coughed at the accompanying bottle of lube and wondered if Jay hadn’t been more perceptive then Zayn had given him credit for.

The last item was a simple off-white card, a little worn around the edges on the front there was a London address and phone number while on the back in bold black ink it said:

 **_Questioning the Cause:_ ** _a mutants anonymous group for those who may have lost their way._

He couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of people needing superheroes anonymous—what a joke! But he slipped the card into his wallet anyway; figuring Jay must’ve had a good reason for sending it to him.

<><><> 

So he packed his bags and headed off to London for school, moving into his dorm room. It was average sized, big enough for him and the lucky bloke he’d be stuck with thanks to a random lottery.

Some engineering major by the name of Liam Payne, who was on the shy side, quiet—kept mostly to himself and to his studies, didn’t drink or go out partying till all hours of the night disturbing Zayn’s sleep, he was kind, respectful and generous making it a point to let Zayn know to help himself to anything of his, be it food, school supplies or medicine. He even offered to share clothes with Zayn though he drew the line at sharing underwear—thank god.

Liam was smart and caring, and most of all, _normal,_ something Zayn has never been and envied about his roommate immensely.

By all accounts, Zayn was a normal eighteen-year-old college student, majoring in mixed media. At first, he’d been more interested in photography, but decided that was just a little too Jimmy Olsen for his tastes, so instead he chose to dip his toes in several different art mediums until he found his calling.

Aside from Liam, Zayn kept mostly to himself he talked to a few kids in class when there was group work to be done but none of those friendships extended beyond the classroom and Zayn liked it that way. But there were two others he encountered daily, his and Liam’s suite mates Niall and Harry, who they shared an adjoining bathroom with.

This wouldn’t be so bad if he and Niall didn’t constantly get on each other’s very last nerve. Harry was an alright sort, a bit flakey and overly cheerful for Zayn’s tastes, but like Liam, he was more or less well meaning.

Niall, on the other hand, was a whole other story. The blonde was hot headed, quick to anger--a real tight ass who looked for any excuse to dig into Zayn, complaining about this or that. If it wasn’t that, Zayn’s music was too loud, it was that the smell from his weed had snuck beneath their door to bleed into the other boy’s room or that Zayn had used up all the hot water in the shower, and had even once been accused of dunking Niall’s toothbrush in the toilet. Zayn only wishes he _had_ done it after listening to Niall go off on him for a full hour about it.

But it wasn’t only Niall who complained, Zayn did his fair share of shouting. Liam might not be one for parties but their Irish neighbor was, often coming in late, slamming things around and knocking into stuff. Zayn didn’t know how Harry dealt with it but it pissed Zayn off to no end and sharing a thin wall with the blonde. Zayn has unfortunately heard Niall having a morning wank while Harry is in class on too many occasions to be healthy. He honestly could’ve went his entire life without knowing the kind of noises Niall makes when he’s having a tug.

So for the first month of school the only evil Zayn has encountered is Niall’s annoying ass and Harry’s stupid pet hamster who keeps escaping its cage, only to make herself at home in Zayn’s clothes drawer.

<><><> 

It’s not that he was looking for trouble or was wanting to test out this whole superhero in the big city thing, but when he happens upon a mugging in progress on his way home from class, he can’t help but intervene, pulling the hood of his sweatshirt up over his head to shield his face as much as possible, remembering Jay’s warning. He saves the woman, retrieves her property and holds the culprit just long enough for the cops to arrive before fleeing into the night.

By the time he gets to his dorm room his skin in still vibrating with adrenaline, reliving the ordeal over and over in his head, how exciting it felt to use his powers without consequence, the look on the muggers face when he turned around to find Zayn standing there with flames flicking from his fingertips, even remembers what he said to the jerk ‘are you going to give that woman he bag back and play nice or am I going to have to do it for you?’ The mugger had tried testing him, starting to take off in the opposite direction but the fireball Zayn threw just passed his head stopped him in his tracks.

Best of all was the woman’s reaction, she hadn’t been disgusted by him, had recoiled when he handed her purse over, instead she flung herself at him, hugging him and thanking him profusely for his _service_. It was quite an exhilarating feeling, something he could definitely get used to.

The next morning he’s on every news channel and even gets his first article written about him in the paper, the media quickly dubbing him _Pyro, the flame crusader_.

A couple more run-ins and a uniform becomes necessary. He finds a discreet site that specializes in superhero uniforms, designing and pays a pretty penny but it’s worth it when his suit arrives and it’s perfect—exactly what he wanted, with all the correct specifications he asked for.

It’s not easy prowling the streets for danger by night and still making it to his 10am economics class, but he manages.

It’s a rush is the thing, staring in the face of danger and winning, the boundless gratitude he gets in return from each victim, loves all the media attention and praise he gets-- it’s addictive.

Six months in however the 'thank yous' start coming less and less, some victims actually going so far as to _blame_ him for not using his ‘spidey senses or whatever’ to see the attack before it happened, ignoring him when he tells them he doesn’t possess the power of foresight.

It starts to get harder and harder to convince himself to care when he sees someone in trouble, to even bother to step in…what was the point when they’d just dust themselves off and leave without so much as a hand shake in thanks for his efforts?

It’s after breaking up a bar fight where one man pulled a knife on the other, fully intent on performing an DIY navel piercing without the other’s consent, that he thinks back to the card Jay sent him, the one he’d scoffed at at the time. But now he realized he could probably use a bit of support from someone who understood where he was coming from, someone going through the same plight—questioning their calling and wondering if any of this was even worth it.

<><><> 

Taking a deep breath Zayn squares his shoulders and rounds the corner entering the main room where there are already chairs arranged in a circle, taking up most of the space.

The room is filled with the chatter of several conversations going on at once, as most of the room’s occupants milled about, some hanging around the long table against a back wall filled with food and drinks, others were already sat in their desired chair, talking amongst themselves. Only a few eyes are turned on his curiously before they dart away again in disinterest, which helps Zayn to relax a bit, moving further into the room.

Everyone is dressed in their super suits and masks as requested by the bloke he’d talked to on the phone the other night, a polite man with a slow raspy voice that sounded oddly familiar for reasons Zayn couldn’t quite name. He contemplates grabbing a bottle of water from the table but thinks better of it and snatches the closest chair to him instead, plopping down into it, keeping his eyes down so as not to make eye contact with anyone--the last thing he’d want is for someone to take that as invitation to approach him.

It works and he finally exhales, some of the tension in his shoulders loosening and he takes this time to listen in on a nearby conversation two girls are having ironically about binge watching the first three seasons of Smallville this past weekend. Mentally rolling his eyes, he switched to concentrating on the pair of blokes three seats down from him. One standing, looking impossibly tall, as he towers over the other man, an average sized chap with flaming red hair that he doesn’t bother to cover with a cap or hood, his costume itself was green and turquoise, with a reptilian pattern that mimicked that of a snake or lizards skin—kind of reminding him of his childhood pet bearded dragon Arnie. The other man’s uniform is far less garish in dull browns with black accent…Zayn couldn’t imagine what his power was.

Even with most of the attention off him Zayn still feels the tingling sensation of being watched, can feel eyes on him, tracking his every move and leaving him with an unsettling feeling in his gut. He feels like he’s going to be sick, and once again thinks about getting up for a bottle of water, but before he can rise, someone comes clunking noisily down the stairs and a deep voice grumbles.

“Have no fear, for I am here.” Zayn quirks a lip in amusement and lifts his head to find a tall lanky bloke stood in the doorway with his hands on his hips in a dorky Superman pose, and can’t help but join in on the laughter, his breath hitches however when his eyes finally reach the boy’s face and all at once his entire body goes cold.

He knew that face…and the person it belonged to.

“Sorry I’m late, guys, my environmental lecture ran over a bit.” Harry explained entering the room.

“Please everyone grab a seat so we can get started, we should be expecting a new face this evening…ah and there he is!” He chirped, spotting Zayn.

Zayn watched that familiar dimple dig into his cheek as Harry’s face split with a smile, making his way over.

“It’s Pyro, right?” He asked, thrusting a hand out for a shake; Zayn only hesitated for a beat before taking it.

“Uh, yeah…s’what they call me on the telly.”

“Oh, and you didn’t correct them?” Harry drew his hand back, face contorting in confusion.

Zayn shrugged. “Didn’t have any alternatives, so I just let it stick.”

“Huh,” the curly-haired man hummed, giving Zayn a long, considering look before finally clapping his hands together in excitement. “Alright, well, welcome to Questioning The Cause. My name is Harry Styles and I’ll be moderating this and all meetings from here on.”

He couldn’t believe it, that the meeting was to be run by his dopey looking neighbor, the same one who walks around their dorm naked, wears his hair in a perfect bun and is partial to more eccentric tops—Zayn will never forget the flamingoes and now he was meant to sit here and take this guy seriously?

The others who had started moving about, filling the seats around them now mumbled their own welcomes and greetings to him, which he returns just as distantly. Spinning on his heel Harry makes his way to a chair between a svelte girl with wild black curls and a built bloke with impressive arms and warm brown eyes, detectable even from a distance, his hair in an impressive silver faux hawk to match his uniform.

After getting comfortable, crossing one leg over the other a feat Zayn would’ve thought impossible given how tight he liked to wear his skinny jeans, Harry brings his clipboard up and flips through a couple of pages until he finds the one he’s looking for and uncaps his pen.

“Ok! Evening everyone, welcome back my friends, it’s good to see so many familiar faces…now let’s get started, shall we? As always I’ll start off by reiterating our mission statement and we’ll go from there.” He pauses for effect, looking for some kind of reaction before continuing. “Questioning The Cause or as Speedy over there likes to call it, _Heroes Anonymous,_ is a fellowship of men and women who are here to share their experience, struggle, and hope for a better tomorrow with each other and that we may help to solve this common problem and help others who have lost the drive and desire to answer their calling. The only requirement for membership is the need for help and an open mind.”

While Harry spoke Zayn felt a shiver pass through him, the eerie feeling of being watched returning with a vengeance, closer.

“Now last week we left off with Hozier sharing a story about a family of four you saved from a burning house, I’d like you to finish if you don’t mind, and afterwards the floor will be open for volunteers—perhaps our newest member would like to take a swing at it?” He finished with a raised eyebrow in question, chuckling at Zayn’s fierce head shake. “Or not…Hozier, if you will?” The incredibly tall bloke, donning murky brown from earlier drew in a deep breath, rubbing nervously up and down his thighs as he took a quick glance around the circle.

“Ah, yes, hello all. Pyro, nice ta meet ya…this is my fourth meeting and third incident where I’ve questioned my calling. That night I heard the sirens, could see and smell the smoke from a mile out so I rushed over, following a woman’s screams and saw that the trucks had just arrived not long before I got there. Smoke was everywhere, and the flames were huge and angry, and of course the entire family was up on the top floor. The boys were still setting everything up, getting the ladder out but I knew I could get the family to safety in half that time so I moved to the front lawn and stretched my body out, making a human fire safety net and called for them to jump. The two little girls were scared, naturally, so their Ma went first to show faith, after they saw her land safely, bouncing just the once the oldest girl went next followed by her sister and finally their Da."

“By all accounts it was a successful rescue. I was on my way out, after making sure the family was sought to, of course. My job there was done, but then I hear the littlest girl scream bloody murder, yelling ‘Cupcakes’ over and over at the top of her lungs—to be honest I thought she’d bumped her head or summat, but then I turn and see a fireman coming out the house carrying a wilted pup in his arms and I realized I hadn’t gotten everyone out after all. They tried giving the dog oxygen but it was too late, he didn’t make it.

“I felt awful, but there was no way I could’ve known, not one of them mentioned a dog! But the littlest one come running up on me beating me in the thighs with her tiny fists, calling me a failure, _blaming_ me for not saving him, actually _blamed_ me, and her parents didn’t do a thing to set the record straight or come to my defense. Neither did any of the firemen, who just stood there avoiding me eyes. Disgusted, I took off and haven’t bothered since.”

“You mean you haven’t helped anyone in two weeks?” Harry asked in alarm.

Hozier nodded slowly. “But in my defense, I haven’t really left the house in all that time, been living on pizza and takeaway. I just felt so disappointed. How could they just let that little girl go on believing I’d let Cupcakes die, as though I wasn’t already beating meself up over it?”

“Hozier, listen to me you did not ‘let’ Cupcakes die. You had no way of knowing he even existed until it was too late, and it’s awful that that little girl’s parents and the firemen used you as a scapegoat. Because it’s always easiest to blame the mutant, isn’t it? But you have nothing to be sorry for, you singlehandedly saved that entire family.”

“Sounds like the guy I saved the other night, real piece of work. Only he didn’t have the excuse of being a grieving little child who doesn’t know any better.” A man sat directly across from Zayn with his right arm in a sling pipes up.

“Would you like to share next?” Harry asks wearily, as though he’s had to deal with this kind of behavior for a long time. Hozier can finally relax now that the focus is off of him and sits back in his seat.

“Yeah alright, name’s Speed Demon and I’ve been coming to these meetings for six months now, and have had too many incidents that made me question the cause to count, and yet, I must be a glutton for punishment because I’m still out there, still putting myself on the line, and for what? Nothing that’s what! It’s not much of a story really, was walking home from work, heard a scuffle in a dark alley and stuck my big dumb neck in. It turned out to be a gang member trying to relieve this bloke of his watch and wallet but this man was big, a real tough guy, and wouldn’t hand it over without a fight—guess he hadn’t seen the gun.”

The entire group lets out a collective gasp; hanging on Speed Demon’s every word.

“The gun goes off and I take off to shove the innocent out of the way of the bullet, and usually I’m faster than any bullet can ever _dream_ to be but it’d been a long, grueling day and I was feeling a big sluggish. I managed to get him out of harm’s way, though; me on the other hand wasn’t as lucky and ended up getting grazed pretty badly.”

“Oh no is that why you’re in a sling?” A thin brunette with legs for days simpers from beside him, reaching out as if to touch the injured arm but caught herself at the last minute.

“This?” He says with a laugh and a roll of his eyes. "It’s just standard procedure, doctors orders. Not you Doc, this guy had an actual medical degree.” He joked turning to a tall blonde whose uniform was designed to mimic that of a surgeon and winked. “But you know how it is with our kind, I’ll be good as new by tomorrow, not that that’s the point…I took a fucking bullet for this dude and do you know what he had the nerve to say to me?” The girl beside him shakes her head, as though the two of them were having a private conversation and not sat in a circle with twenty or so other people.

“Do you think he thanked me? Yeah right. Did he ask if I was ok, offer to give me a lift to A&E? Nope!” Clenching the hand of his uninjured arm, he sneered straight ahead, spitting his next words out like poison.

“This wanker had the nerve to look me dead in my eye and say _what took you so long?_ Can you believe it? My entire arm is throbbing, feeling like my bloods made of acid, and he wants to know what took me so long to step in? While I’m trying to pick my jaw up off the ground, the bloody mugger gets away free to rob another day, and to be honest, at this point I couldn’t careless. I’ve said this nearly every week so far but this time I mean it, I’m done—hanging up my spandex and winged sneakers for good.”

“Lou, you don’t mean it.” The girl slips, this time she doesn’t stop herself from grabbing his uninjured arm and Zayn wonders how strict this anonymity clause is—did some of these people know each other’s true identities? Was that allowed?

As if reading Zayn’s mind, Harry coughs into his fist. “It’s Speed Demon; please remember this is an anonymous group Lady Vertigo.”

“I do V, I’m sick and tired of being treated like shite. They take us for granted, forgetting that this is our _choice_ …we choose to use our abilities for good to help. It’s not our _obligation,_ we’re not the police, who actually get paid and commended for a job well done. If I had been in police uniform you think that guy would’ve said those things to me? No, he would’ve thanked me but then I’d risk the chance of being arrested for impersonating an officer, so I’m screwed either way, aren’t I?”

“We’ve got about fifteen minutes left, did anyone else want to share?” Zayn raised his hand without thinking.

“Pyro? Volunteering at your very first meeting? Nice!”

“No, not really I just had a question; I know you’ve probably already explained this to the rest of the group but what exactly gives you the authority to run these meetings? I mean, I see you there unmasked and vulnerable and I’m confused, are you even a mutant?”

“Oi noob, tread lightly there buster, Haz is a good man and an even better leader, so going after him ain’t exactly gonna put you in anyone’s good graces here.”

Harry raises a hand. “No, Speedy, it’s fine.” To Zayn he nods. “That’s a fair question and I did touch on it a bit in the very beginning when I first started the group, but a lot of you who joined after don’t know _my_ story, just accepted me as your leader, no questions asked, which is flattering but you deserve to know.”

“I’m not a mutant; I have no special powers or abilities.”

“But that’s not to say I haven’t any authority on the subject, not only have I got the utmost respect for mutants and your cause, but I have a personal stake in your world. You see, my father was Mr. Untouchable.” His voice begins the shake the longer he talks but he never wavers, “That’s right the greatest superhero of all time, he was a triple threat, rare among mutant, who are usually only born with one gift. And some, like Magnum Force, possess two, but my dad had three: flight, telekinesis, and super hearing. He was unstoppable, responsible for not only putting a number of criminals behind bars, but also ridding the Earth of some of the most diabolical villains to exist. He was everyone’s hero, even other heroes looked up to my dad. He was the kind of superhero that all others strived to be like. But just like you all, he lost sight of the cause, started doing it for the praise and attention—became a sort of celebrity, letting it all go to his head. He’d come home so angry if he wasn’t given some kind of metal or reward, if a woman he’d saved didn’t offer to thank him in a _certain_ kind of way, he felt like he’d earned it.

“My dad wasn’t perfect, but he was a good man and did a lot of good, but when people stopped acknowledging all that he’d done for them, had ungrateful--taking him for granted. He turned to the bottle, started drinking every night, coming home smelling like cheap booze and some strange women’s perfume. It nearly killed me and my mum to see him spiraling but he wouldn’t take any of our help, wouldn’t talk to anyone.” He growls that last bit, fists clenching in his lap.

“It was on a stormy night ten years ago that my father went up to the top of the tallest building in London and jumped off.” He looks up then, sea foam green eyes swimming in unshed tears. “I’ve watched him do this a thousand times mind you, old Des Styles was quite the thrill seeker, liked to ride the edge of danger…he’d leap from the roof, soaring down and just before he hit the ground he’d pull up, arching right back up to the sky—only this time he didn’t pull up.” Zayn watches Harry catch his trembling bottom lip between his teeth and bite down.

“After thirty some years of protecting London as the greatest superhero this city has ever seen, my father took his own life because he'd felt unfulfilled and under appreciated—haunted by all the people he'd defeated and all the lives he hadn’t been able to save, it took a toll on him.”

“Back then there hadn’t been anyone for him to reach out to, no kind of network where mutants could come together and talk things out, and support one another. So from that day I vowed to never let that happen to another hero—not if I could help it, so I started this program with the help of Grimmy, who lets us use his basement and fund the snacks because he’s pretty amazing, for a civilian. I’m really only here to facilitate, it’s you all that call the shots, it’s your experiences being shared.” Turning to Zayn he offers him a wet smile.

“I hope that helped clear things up for you.”

“Um, yeah it did and I’m—I’m sorry about your Dad.”

“Thank you.” He croaks out, wiping ferociously at the tears that won’t stop falling now that they’ve started. “On that note, I think I’m going to call this meeting to an end, feel free to help yourself to the food and drinks in the corner and I hope to see you all here again next week, and as always, I’m here to talk if you want to call me outside of group.”

While everyone else head towards the snack tabled Zayn finds his way to the exit, he’s got paper due Monday that he plans to get started on sooner than later. Just before he reaches the stairs someone calls out to him.

“Hey Pyro, wait up.” It’s Harry, of course it is. “So what’d you think of the meeting?”

“It was alright, didn’t really have any expectations going in, was just curious and thought it’d be nice to be around others who knew what I was going through and it was, it helped to know I’m not the only one with these thoughts.”

“Thoughts?”

“That it isn’t worth it anymore, none of it—saving the day and getting nothing in return.”

“Saving a life isn’t enough?”

“You know what I mean, it’s like Speed Demon said we chose this…the least those jerks can do is throw us a ‘thanks’ every now and then. I haven’t even been at it very long, just a few months and I’m already growing jaded, don’t know how that lot in there does it.”

“I’m truly sorry you feel that way, but that group finds it in them to continue because they see the bigger picture, know that they’re making a difference and sometimes that’s enough.”

“Yeah well ‘doing the right thing’ gets pretty old when you’re constantly being shat on afterwards. I’ve got to be off, got a bloody paper to write, but I’ll see you next week.” Zayn promises, starting up the stairs.

“You will? That’s great! Good luck on your paper.” Harry shouts after him and gets a half-hearted thumbs up for his troubles.

<><><> 

Getting back to the dorms takes no time at all, and although he’s in no rush to get started on that paper, he is relieved to be back in familiar surroundings. Liam’s out, probably in the library or with one of his many study groups—Zayn isn’t too worried, Liam’s pretty built for the nerdy type, Zayn thinks he remembers the other boy mentioning boxing a lot as a young lad, to fend off bullies at school, Zayn reckons if they’d been friends growing up he would’ve protected him, Liam was such a sweet person he couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt him.

Rolling his neck in an effort to get rid of some of its stiffness, he toes his boots off and makes his way over to his dresser to change out of his street clothes and the uniform hidden beneath it and into some worn joggers instead, but when he pulls his draw out he yelps in surprise as Harry’s fat smelly hamster squeaks indignantly at him in hamster gibberish, seeming abhorred that he would dare disturb her slumber, as if she hadn’t chosen to make herself at home in _his_ clothes drawer, no doubt getting her fur and hamster funk all over his favorite shirts.

“The fuck are you doing in here—again? How do you keep getting out?” He grumbled, scooping the little furball up in both his hands, the hamster so used to this routine by now that she doesn’t offer him any kind of resistance.

Using the inside of his elbow he get his door open and leaves it that way as he shuffles down to Harry and Niall’s room, using the toe of his boot to kick at their door, not caring if he leaves black marks on the paint.

“What do you want?” Niall snaps when he sees who’s responsible for all the racket.

“For starters, new suite mates, but for now I’d just be happy if you took this thing and put it back where it belongs and make sure it stays out of my drawers!” He squeaked, holding his cupped hands out to Niall, as though it were a dirty diaper or something equally as gross and smelly.

“Yoncé!” Harry’s voice called out from somewhere inside the room and pushed Niall aside in order to receive his beloved pet. “Thank god you found her.” To the hamster he cooed: “daddy was so worried about his little Queen B, yes he was,” taking on an irritating baby voice.

Zayn fought not to roll his eyes. ”Yeah well, perhaps you should look into buying her a better cage, seeing as she manages to get out the one she has every other week and always finds her fat arse in our room!”

Harry pouted, offended on his hamster’s behalf. “Excuse you she is not fat, she’s _bootylicious_.”

“She’s _annoying,_ now seriously, keep her away from me and my things or next time I’m going to the RA.”

“I’ll try but Yoncé is a proud independent woman, who ain’t gonna bow to the demands of no man…not even her loving father, isn’t that right, B?”

This time Zayn did roll his eyes, completely disgusted. “It’s a disgrace that you dare taint the holy name of Beyoncé by naming your hamster after her.”

Harry clucked his tongue. “She’s just as beautiful and talented as the real deal, thank you, and go ahead and complain to the RA, Ed loves Yoncé, he’d never make me get rid of her.” Harry informed him before dismissing him with a flip of his curly mane.

“I hope she pissed all over everything you love.” Niall throws in, just before closing the door but not before Zayn can grumble:

“If she did, next time I might just throw her out the window instead of bringing her back here.”

“You’d never…”

“You’re sure about that?” Zayn bluffed, with a menacing arch to his brow.

“You may be a wanker but not even you are that cruel.”

Zayn couldn’t help but snort. “You’re calling _me_ a wanker, when you literally toss off every morning?”

“Not only are you a wanker but a pervert to boot, what’re you doing listening to me through the walls!”

“Look, Niall, I’m real sorry your mother never loved you but you don’t have to take your anger out on me.”

“What’re you talking about?”

“She gave you that face, didn’t she?”

“Oh piss off.” He spits out and finally slams the door in Zayn’s face. Satisfied that he’d won that round Zayn turned to head back to his room and spots Liam coming down the hall, shoots him a smile.

“Is it raining?” He asks, noticing Liam’s wet hair.

“What? No why do you ask?”

“Your hair is wet.” Running a hand through the hair in question, as if to confirm that it was indeed wet, and grinned uneasily.

“Right, was in the school gym to let some stress off and showered after.”

“Is statistics really that bad?” Zayn asked moving over to their mini fridge and grabbing out two waters, he knew Liam was struggling in that course, but he didn’t think it was so bad that it was stressing the other boy out.

“You’ve no idea, mate.” Liam admitted, taking the offered water with a thanks and taking a seat on the end of his bed.

“Are you sure you didn’t stop by a strip club on the way back? You’ve got a bit of glitter at the nape of yer neck.”

Liam froze his hand reaching back to blindly rub at the skin there. “Yeah? That’s weird, I’ve no clue how that got there. So what was that all about?”

“Huh?” Liam took a large swallow of water, wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand.

“You and our neighbors getting into it again tonight.”

“Oh, that damn rat got in here again.” This causes Liam to grin, his eyes crinkling up and disappearing.

“Let me guess, she made herself a bed in your bottom drawer.”

“Go it in one, threatened to toss the thing out the window, just to get under blondie’s skin.”

“And it worked.” Liam said matter-of-factly, so all Zayn had to do was nod the affirmative.

“It always does.”

Taking a second drink of cool water Liam squinted his eyes. “You know, if I didn’t know any better I’d think what you two have was some sick form of mating ritual.”

Zayn choked on his own sip, but once he managed to recover he said in a very no nonsense tone: “Glad you know better then, I mean Christ, Liam, he’s a first class asshole, he’s rude, nosey, not to mention an idiot, and a right pain in my arse. I mean, I guess he’s alright on the eyes, but he still looks like he’s twelve…not my type at all.” Raising his hands in front of him in surrender Liam chuckled.

“Alright, alright forget I said anything…it’s just odd how fast you two went from strangers to enemies…is it safe to call him that?”

It was Zayn’s turn to laugh. “Sure, I’m secretly a superhero and he’s my arch nemesis, Professor Ponce, able to piss me off with a single look or just by opening his mouth. His super powers include the ability to talk complete bullshit with a straight face, effortlessly suck all the fun out of any room and excrete the most toxic fumes from out his ass at the drop of a hat.” Liam fell back on the bed, rolling around in a giggling mess, laughing so hard he could barely get his next words out.

“Stop, oh god, do shut up, you’re going to make me wee my pants.”

“Thanks for sharing.”

“Can you imagine being a superhero, though?” He asked, sobering up quickly as he stared up at the poster of some superhero Zayn didn’t recognize on his wall.

“Nah, those guys have to be under so much stress all the time and you know me, I’m a lazy sod, rather chill then go out saving the world.”

Liam shook his head, looking a bit dazed. “Not me, I’d give anything to be a superhero…”

“Yeah, what power would you choose then?”

“I’d be happy with anything really, but I guess it’d be kinda neat to fly, don’t you think?” Zayn glanced up at the poster again, whoever that was had possessed the gift of flight, at least that’s what the poster implied, seeing as he was floating in midair.

“I guess…so who is that anyway? Don’t think I recognize him from the news.”

“You wouldn’t this is Mr. Untouchable, an old time superhero—one of the very first mutants to come out of hiding and use his gifts for good.”

“So that’s him, huh…you’re really into this hero stuff, aren’t ya?”

“Oh yes, I find them fascinating.” Zayn raises an eyebrow.

“You don’t think they’re a bunch of freaks?” He asked and got a sharp look for his troubles.

“Of course not, I’d never think that.” Zayn made a thoughtful noise, happier with that answer then Liam would ever know. “You don’t feel that way, do you?” Liam countered and Zayn paused to think of the best way to answer.

“I had a mate back when I was fourteen who turned out to be a mutant, didn’t change the way I thought about him, he was still just Jay, ya know?”

“Yeah…” Liam himself seemed to get lost in thought and Zayn figured the conversation was pretty much over but couldn’t help but add:

“They’re just like us, only with an extra wonky gene that gives them gills or x-ray vision.”

Liam snorted, though there wasn’t any real amusement in his voice when he says: “I’m glad you feel that way, Zayn, really glad.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve got a paper to write, so I’m gonna get started on it, if you don’t mind…I can put headphones in if you like?”

Liam shook his head. “That’s ok, I found my earplugs this morning so I’m good.”

“If you’re sure…” With a thumbs up from his roommate, Zayn pressed play and the first track of Nirvana’s Nevermind album came bleeding out the speakers at top volume, just the way he liked it.

You see Spiderman hadn’t been kidding about that whole spidey-senses tingling thing because the tingles in the back of his neck and all the way down to his spine he got whenever there was trouble a foot were very much real, it’s like being born a mutant automatically equipped him with a _someone is in danger_ censor though ‘danger’ in this case is a very broad term that ranges from a little girl falling off her bike and scraping her knee to chasing down some asshole whose nicked a girl’s purse, to melting a patch of black ice on a busy freeway to avoid there being any accidents…the tingle didn’t discriminate between levels of severity.

So you can imagine the near constant ‘tingle’ when his senses confuse an old lady needing help across the street and an actual emergency can take quite the toll on a bloke, so Zayn uses music to dull it, drown out the buzzing beneath his skin telling him there’s somewhere else he needs to be despite the fact that he has other responsibilities, give himself a break.

And while he could use headphones—after all, it’s the polite thing to do, so long as his roommate didn’t mind, he’d rather not use them and miss out on all the fun of driving his neighbor up the wall.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Zayn hears through the wall, _right on time_ he thinks, and wishes he could turn the music up even louder.

“Is the light bothering you? I could move out into the common room if you want?” Zayn snorts at Harry’s attempt to take the blame for waking Niall up.

“You think it’s your tiny book light that’s bothering me? When that jerk has bloody Nirvana blaring through the walls? Look it here…your Mick Jagger bobble head is actually bobbling without either of us having to touch it!” Niall growled and Zayn could just imagine the exact shade of red his face was turning.

“Maybe he’ll turn it off soon? I know this song it’s almost over and maybe he’ll be going to bed, he’s got a roommate, Liam, right, who probably has class tomorrow morning, so surely he can’t expect to play his music all night long.” They have to shout to be heard above the music that’s the only reason Zayn can hear them through the thin walls of their shitty dorm, he hasn’t got super hearing or anything.

“Tomorrow is Saturday, Haz.” Niall reminds him, sounding exasperated.

“Oh right, I just don’t want you getting into it again with him…the last time he retaliated by switching our shampoo with canine fur cleaner, and while it made my hair pretty darn shiny, I didn’t much appreciate smelling of au de pup.” Zayn can’t hold his laughter in at the reminder of that classic prank, tilting his chair back on two legs.

“That’s not gonna happen but I can’t not say something, we can’t just keep letting him dick us around like he does.”

“I bet you’d like it if he did _that_.” Zayn nearly loses his balance in shock.

“What was that?” Niall asked sounding just as scandalized as Zayn feels.

“Nothing, I didn’t say anything.” Harry wisely recanted, just as the song ended plunging the room in silence for all of five seconds before the next track started up.

“Fuck this!” Niall shouted and the next thing Zayn knows he hears feet stomping all the way out the door and stopping in front of the door to his room.

Zayn watches Niall’s shadow appear under the door before three loud bangs land on the thick metal. Zayn practically skips over to it, pulling it open to smile sweetly at the enraged blonde, as though he’s done nothing wrong.

“Hello neighbor, did you need something? A cup of sugar mayhaps?” Niall’s mouth thinned.

“Mayhaps I deck you in that pretty face of yours?” Zayn tilted his head in amusement.

“You think I’m pretty?” He asked, playfully batting his eyelashes.

“Oh yes, very with eyelashes like yours, you remind me of the baby dolls my cousins used to play with growing up—the kind that’s eyes closed on their own, creepy little buggers.” Zayn’s smile shrinks, no longer amused.

“Right then what do you want?” He asked in a flat bored tone, causing the blonde’s arms to start flailing.

“Are you daft? Your music is too bloody loud I’d bet they can hear it clear across campus and as it is you’re rearranging the furniture in our room with just the bass of this fecking song.”

“If that’s true than how come you’re the only one complaining?”

“I don’t know maybe everyone else had the good sense to either go home for the weekend or out to a party, lord knows I could use a pint after having to deal with you.”

“You sure that’s my fault and not your heritage? Either way I’ve got a paper to write and I can’t work in quiet, so sod off.”

“Screw you, it’s Friday night, you’ve got the entire weekend to write the fucking thing.”

“It’s a fifteen pager due Monday, and weirdly enough, I’m in a writing mood so I repeat, sod off.” He shouted and moved to slam the door in Niall’s face.

“Fecking prat.” Niall cursed, as Zayn nearly caught his foot in the process.

Hearing the satisfying sound of Niall’s door slamming Zayn scooted his chair closer to the desk and settled in to write his paper, but first he went back to the last song that had played and set it to repeat, having missed it while dealing with the Irish Princess.

<><><> 

The week goes by in a flash and before Zayn knows it he’s ducking into that same rundown record shop. This time he’s more prepared, bringing a backpack with him to stow his clothes in instead of stashing them in a plastic bag behind a dumpster in a nearby alley like he’d done the previous week.

He’s not even a minute late and yet everyone is already there and settled in their seats, Harry lights up at the sight of him, causing Zayn to suspect that the taller boy doubted he was coming. He starts to head for the empty seat between Hozier and a girl who went by Miz Mirage when Speed Demon suddenly let out an ear splitting whistle.

“Ooh ooh Pyro, Pyro come sit near me…got a seat right here for ya, mate, come on sit with me, come onnnnn!!!” He whined, waving his arms around like a spastic child.

“Erm, alright.” Zayn agreed, walking over with a bit of reluctance.

“Nice to see you again Pyro.” Harry said with a friendly wink.

Speed Demon snorted. “Harold here didn’t think you had the bollocks to come back but I had a bit more faith in you, P.”

“But I _said_ I’d be back.” Zayn frowned; offended that Harry hadn’t believed him.

“Yes I know but we’ve had several people come one time and then disappear and I just really hoped you wouldn’t be one of them.”

“Well, I’m not, something to know about me my word is my bond…if I say I’m going to do something I do it. I haven’t got much time or tolerance for lies or _liars_.”

Harry nodded. “Duly noted, I’ll not doubt you again.” Speaking to the rest of the group he grinned, “with that settled, who’d like to start us off today?”

Slowly the man with flaming ginger hair’s hand went up and Harry’s face lit up with it. “Chameleon! What a pleasant surprise!”

“I know I’ve been kind of tight-lipped since first coming here and that’s because I was worried my reason for coming wouldn’t be accepted. You see, I’m not here because it bothers me when the innocents just brush us off after we save them. I don’t _like_ it, don’t think it’s right, but I can live with it, I guess. The reason I first came here was just to be around others like myself.” He admits this with a shy little shrug.

“I’ve never had this before, always been the odd man out—the freak, not even my parents could accept me, when they found out about my ability they threw me out the house…I was just fourteen. I’ve been on my own ever since moved from shelter to shelter busking for food and I’m currently working my way through uni, so it’s been an uphill battle for me from the very start, being a mutant, so that’s why I’m here…to gain perspective because before meeting you all and seeing the good in being different, I always saw being mutant as a curse rather than a blessing.”

“Don’t worry mate, we’ve all been there.” Speed Demon assures him with an encouraging smile, which Chameleon easily returns.

“I’ve definitely been there.” A small girl dressed in an all black cat suit and a pair of tall feathery boots speaks up. “Hi, I’m called Raven, and I’ve been questioning the cause all my life…been asking whoever is responsible for creating mutants _why me_ since I was just nine years old, when these stupid things first started to grow.” Zayn watches as two gorgeous black wings unfold at the shoulders, jet black with an almost metallic shimmer when the light hits them just right.

“So I know where you’re coming from Chameleon, only I took it a step further turned to self harm…tried to cut them off when I was fifteen and the boy I fancied found out I was a freak and mutant- shamed me in front of the entire school. Up until then very few people knew about me…my family, the principal, a few teachers, and my best mate at the time Perrie, but after that day life became a living nightmare. I was tormented—beaten and spat on daily and the _things_ they’d call me…” her voice breaks off in a shudder at the memory.

“I had to change schools three times in a single year before my family finally just up and left South Shields, moving to a more mutant friendly town, and that’s how we ended up here, in London.” She finishes just as she lets out the first wail beginning to fold in on herself, as her body shakes with sobs.

“Aw, babe c’mere.” Miz Mirage cooed, throwing an arm around Raven to pull her close to her side, snuggling up close and planting a few kisses on her exposed collarbone while her hand soothingly caressed the crying girl’s side, the move much too intimate for friends, but then Zayn didn’t really know them, so maybe that’s just how close they were.

“Has anyone else ever experienced this kind of treatment, mutant hazing or discrimination for something you had no control of?” Nearly every hand went up; Zayn’s remained in his lap since he hasn’t really experienced mutant hate having kept his powers a secret for most his life—all of his bullying had been centered around his mixed heritage, because unfortunately, there was more than one kind of ugliness in the world.

Looking around he saw he wasn’t the only one with his hand down and felt less guilty, as though it was his fault that the others had to go through that and not him.

A shiver licks up his spine suddenly, much like during the last meeting as he feels eyes on him, can feel them moving around his body like a laser pointer, chilling his skin and looks up and across the circle to meet the arctic blue eyes of a pale skinned blonde dressed from head to toe in electric blue spandex, the very tips of his hair frosted white to mimic snow.

If Zayn thought the lad would look away at being caught he was wrong, instead those cool blue eyes continued to bore into his until it became too much and it was he who forfeited, looking away in time to see Harry scribbling something down on his clipboard.

“Captain Calamity, would you care to share your experience with discrimination?”

The rest of the meeting was filled with people’s tales of hate and torture, as one by one people told their stories, each more horrific then the last. They only get through three people after Captain Calamity, a girl Zayn recognizes from the other week from her wild head of curls and caramel skin named Madame Prudence, a tall blonde, who like Calamity, had a distinctly Australian accent called Dr. Fluke, and ends the meeting with an older gentleman who goes by the name of Average Joe. 

For the second time Zayn cuts out of the meeting early to avoid having to socialize—he doesn’t see the point of getting close to someone he sees only once a week, someone he can never be his true self with but Harry rushes after him again, catching him at the bottom of the stairs.

“Hold up, we covered a lot of heavy topics today, heard some of the most despicable things, the kind of hate I didn’t think human beings were even capable of. So I just wanted you to know you can call me anytime during the week if any of what was said brought up unwanted feelings in you, since you didn’t share during group…you need a chance to get them off your chest anyway?”

“I didn’t really have that kind of childhood—I mean, I didn’t really even start using my powers until a couple of months ago.”

“When did you come into your ability?”

“When I was twelve.” Harry gasped.

“You’ve been suppressing your power for six years?”

“Sort of?” Zayn shrugged. “Not completely, every once and a while an older mate—a mutant just like me - we’d go to a secluded area and practice controlling my powers but other than that, yeah I had to…you heard what happens when people catch on that you’re different.”

“Unfortunately.”

“Living my life in hiding was a small price to pay.” And it was, he missed out on even more bullying and now he was free to do what he pleased, within reason, so it was almost like that other life, life in the closet never happened.

“I suppose so; just wish you didn’t have to.”

“Yeah, well, that’s life for you. I’ll see you next week, then?”

Harry’s eyes widened, hopeful. “Will you?”

He shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Think you might share this time?”

Zayn smirked, already halfway up the stairs when he called over his shoulder. “I’ll think about it.”

<><><> 

Zayn’s just stepping out of the showers when someone starts banging on the bathroom door, the one that leads to Harry and Niall’s room and glares at the offending door like it’s all its fault.

“Malik, get yer arse out of there, I’ve got class in an hour, ya manky bastard!”  Sighing Zayn throws his clothes on in record time, hanging his damp towel on his shoulders as he yanks the door open to see Niall scowling at him mid-knock.

“It’s all yours, princess.”

“Finally! I swear sharing a bathroom with you is worse than sharing with a bird.” Niall mumbles to himself, as he grabs his towel and shower caddy and enters the bathroom, shooing the darker boy out and slamming the door behind him.

Seconds later Zayn hears a girlish scream and lays back on his bed laughing, his laughter is cut off as his door flies open and Niall comes stomping out the bathroom in nothing but a tiny towel, water dripping down his pecs to tendril down his abs before finally getting absorbed in the towel.

“You used up the last of the hot water, ya twat!”

Zayn is so shocked, not only by Niall’s nerve but also how good he looks all wet and half naked that he forgoes snarking back to get a rise out of the blonde, and instead raises his arms out in front of him, opening his mouth to claim his innocence:

“Dude, no I didn’t.” Zayn insists, though he knows it’s a lie, he likes his showers on the hot side, can withstand twice the heat that the average human can, so it’s highly likely that he did indeed use it all up, not that he’d ever cop to it. “You probably didn’t twist the knob far enough, you ought to know the old thing gets stuck a lot.”

“I know how to turn the bloody shower on asshole, it’s all the way over and yet the water is cold as ice!”

“God, am I going to have to do it for you?”

“I’d like to see you try.”

“You’re such a knob, should just leave you to suffer, but if doing this will shut you up then I’ll take one for the team.”

Niall scoffed. “You’re the one who’ll look like a knob when you see that I’m right and your selfish ass used up all the hot water!” With a roll of his eyes Zayn slips off his bed and shoulders roughly passed the blonde, who stood in the doorway refusing to move an inch for Zayn to get by, and pretends to fiddle with the shower knobs a bit just for show before touching a single finger to the shower nozzle using his power to heat it and the pipe it’s connected to enough to warm the water, before making a show of putting a hand under the spray and shooting Niall a smug ‘you’re an idiot’ look.

“Like I said, you just didn’t twist the knob back far enough the water feels just right to me.” Unconvinced Niall moves forward to touch the water himself and growls when he finds that it is indeed the perfect temperature.

“What kind of voodoo magic…” He mutters to himself, making Zayn snort.

“Not magic, you just need to hit the gym to work on those spaghetti arms of yours, guess now I’ve not only got brains up on you, but brawn, as well.”

<><><> 

Zayn hates Mondays, not only because they mean the weekend is over, but because his class schedule is super wonky on Mondays. He’s got three classes total, with a forty-five minute block in between his nine-fifteen class and his ten-forty five AM class, and he honestly never knows what to do with himself to pass the time. It’s the one time that he regrets not being more social around campus because it’d be nice to have someone to meet up with for a cuppa in the campus café or summat.

He heads to the café anyway, figuring he could get some last minute reading done for his next class over, and a nice cup of coffee. He’s only been in the café a handful of times and it’s usually been late in the evening after an art clinic, so there’s hardly anyone around.

But the AM crowd is apparently a whole different story. The building was brimming with people, the line for the café stretched all the way out to the sidewalk it was so busy, everyone having to communicate in shouts to be heard over the ding and noise of chatter and various machines going on at once.  Zayn hated crowds even more then he hated Mondays and was tempted to just leave but one whiff of caffeinated heaven and he was helpless to stay and wait, like the good little addict that he was.

Slowly but surely the line moves along, the people at the counter working well and efficiently together, and as Zayn neared the counter he recognized two of the workers one was a girl called Jesy, who was in his psych course and the other was a girl, who lived in his dorm and always hogged the communal telly in the rec room to watch her stories, forcing everyone to sit through EastEnders and Coronation Street, and no one dared try to fight her on it either, because while small, she had quite the mouth on her and a temper to boot. Zayn suspected most of their floor was afraid of her—himself included, to tell the truth.

Cher was taking orders while Jesy looked to be in charge of final inspection and calling out the customer’s names and looks up at his approach her face breaking into a smile.

“Why if it isn’t pretty boy from down the hall.”

Zayn ducks his head bashfully with a smile of his own. “The name’s Zayn.”

“I know, I just like to call you pretty because you are—got eyelashes I’d give my left tit for, it’s not fair!”

“Sorry?” He chuckles and she joins him.

“Eh, I’ll live, now what can I do ya for, love?” She asks getting down to business.

“Large Caramel latte extra drizzle, please.”

“Whip cream?”

“Naw, thanks.” She nods to show she hear him and scribbles something on the side of his cup that he assumes is his name and slides it down the counter.

“Alright love that’ll be four-fifty.” Zayn hands her over a fiver and tells her to keep the change which she rolls her eyes at but thanks him all the same.

He shuffles down to the end of the counter to wait for his drink, watches Jesy hand Craig his Mocha Espresso no foam.

“Caramel latte, no whip, extra drizzle for Zayn?”

“That’d be me.” He said, waving his hand for good measure. Much like with Cher, her face breaks out in a smile at the sight of him, which he instantly returns.

“Hey, I know you.”

“Do ya now?” She nods.

“Yes, you’re the best dressed boy in my Psych lecture.” That gets a laugh out of him as he nods.

“And you’re Jesy, the girl with all the answers.”

Jesy preens at that, holding her arms up at her side as if to say ‘what can ya do’ “What can I say, the human mind excites me.” She jokes and hands him his drink finally. “Here ya go, babe, and I guess I’ll be seeing you later today.” They share a quick laugh and Zayn sends her a little wave while she finishes up the next drink order.

“Hot chocolate extra whip for Lucky Charms!” He hears her shout with a little snicker as he looks around futilely for a place to sit and concludes that he’s probably going to have to take this drink to go, but just as he’s about to give up and head for the exit, a couple vacate a booth near where Jesy’s stood and he rushes to it.

Doing a mental cheer as he slides into the booth before anyone else his excitement is short lived when he sees someone slide into the booth on the opposite side and frowns ready to fight this prick because he’d clearly snagged this table first, but his words get caught in his throat as he realizes just who the prick is.

“You.” He hisses darkly, glaring at the all too familiar blonde and his all too familiarly annoying face.

Niall grins back, completely unbothered. “Hey there neighbor, fancy seeing you here.”

Zayn ignores him asking instead: “What do you think you are doing? This is my table; I saw it first now go away.”

“That’s definitely debatable, seeing as we sat down at the exact same time.”

“Are you kidding me? Are you really going to do this now, here?” He screeched, realizing he’d started to get loud and not caring. “It’s not bad enough that I share a bathroom, hell a bloody _wall_ with you, but now you have to annoy me while I’m trying to have a coffee and do a bit of reading? When will it end?”

Zayn watched Niall’s eyes dart around them as people started to stare and licked his lips nervously. “Dude calm down, you act like I followed you here.” He scoffed at Zayn’s audacity, bringing his cup to his mouth for a sip and Zayn caught sight of the words written on the side ‘Lucky Charm’ causing his eyes to narrow in anger.

“What the hell, you were behind me in line this whole time?” Niall nearly choked on his drink at Zayn’s accusing tone and shook his head.

“No, there was a bloke between us but he just bought a gift card and a cookie.”

Zayn growled in the back of his throat. “Seriously, get up right now, you stalker freak.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about I come here literally every Monday to kill time before my music theory class, Cher’ll vouch for me. So the way I see it you’re the new guy here, maybe it’s _you_ that followed _me_!” Zayn opened his mouth to retort but Jesy beat him to it.

“Boys enough! Now settle down or else I’m going to have to separate you two.” She threatened with a playful smile, giving them both the eye before getting back to work.

Zayn was tempted to tell her to do it, that that would solve all his problems but he knew that wasn’t the point of her asking. That she was trying to let them know how childish they were being and the message was well received.

Sighing, Zayn pulled his textbook from his bag and settled into the booth, not even sparing Niall another glance.

He managed to get a whole paragraph in when Niall spoke up: “So what’cha studying there?”

Not looking up from his book Zayn shook his head. “Can you not? Just because we’re forced to sit together doesn’t mean we have to be social, you just stay on your side of the booth and I’ll stay on mine. That way we can pretend the other isn’t there, yeah?”

Niall shook his head.

“No good, I have this thing with awkward silences, can’t just let them be need to try and fill them somehow.”

Zayn sucked his teeth in faux sympathy. “Well, tough shit, because I’ve got nothing to say to you.” He said frankly and pointedly moved his book so that it blocked his view of the blonde and vice versa.

But he couldn’t actually concentrate on his reading and instead found himself counting the next few seconds by; sure that Niall wasn’t just going to leave it at that but instead of more mindless chatter. Zayn heard the crinkling noise of a newspaper and tipped his book just enough to see that Niall had indeed pulled today’s paper out of his own bag, flipping to the featured story.

“Whoa, did you read this about that new super mutant Pyro?” Niall gasped suddenly and Zayn had just enough time to pull his book back up before Niall’s eyes flicked over to him.

Pretending like he hadn’t just been spying on the blonde, Zayn lowered his textbook so it lie flat on the table and glanced curiously at the paper.

“What?”

Niall pointed to the article in question. “Says here he saved a child from getting hit by a semi last night…man, Hazza’s gonna flip when he gets a load of this.”

Zayn’s eyes widen in interest at the mention of Harry and he can’t help but press Niall for more information. “Oh yeah, why’s that?” He asks shooting for nonchalant.

“He’s a bit obsessed with the guy right now, it’ll pass soon enough—he gets like this sometimes, goes through these phases where he focuses on a person or thing, learning everything there is to know about them before moving on. As a Journalism major he’s always on top of what’s a big deal, and right now it’s him.” He said tapping the semi-blurry picture of Zayn, or _Pyro_ rather, in action. “I don’t see it personally, the guy comes out of nowhere throwing fireballs all willy-nilly. I prefer Iceman meself, now _he’s_ my idea of a superhero.” Zayn sits up at the name, his mind immediately recalling the quiet boy in blue with eyes clear as ice from last week’s QTC meeting, namely the way he seemed to stare right into Zayn’s core and how it seemed to send a chill over Zayn entire body—wondered if that was the same bloke Niall was talking about.

“Iceman? Who’s that? I don’t see any articles getting written up about him.” Niall shoots him a dark look, sticking his chin up defiantly.

“That’s cause he’s not about flash…he goes in, gets the job done, and goes home. It’s not about the bells and whistles for him.”

“You sure know an awful lot about him.”

Niall shrugs. “Course I do, he was Harry’s obsession a couple of months ago, guess he just left a lasting impression on me.” He takes another sip of his drink before smirking. “Besides ice trumps fire every time.”

Zayn makes a skeptical noise. “How so?”

Niall sets his drink back down and drums his fingers on the table. “With fire all one can ever really do is destroy but with Ice you can _create_ —anything really, the possibilities are endless.”

Zayn raises an eyebrow. “Bet you wouldn’t be saying that if you were on a deserted island and needed to start a fire for warmth and to cook.”

Zayn watches Niall tap a finger against his chin in thought. “I guess not, but then again, I know how to build a fire—got the Boy Scout badge back home to prove it.”

“Whatever, when it comes down to it, who do you think would win in a fight Pyro or Iceman?” Niall shrugged bringing his hot chocolate to his mouth to blow on it.

“I don’t know; don’t reckon we’ll ever find out either.”

“Whys that?”

“Simple, Iceman would never use his powers on a fellow hero.”

<><><> 

“Guys, guys let’s get settled, alright?” Harry bellowed, bringing the room to order. “First thing I’d like to do is welcome our newest member, err Brickhead, was it?” Zayn looked over to find this broad fellow, who true to his name, was built like a bloody brick house. He was huge.

“Yes sir, it’s a little play on words a mate back home came up with on account that me power is that I can turn to stone—not actually, not like that fella in the Fantastic Four movies, anyway, but let’s just put it this way, if ya tried to hit me when I’ve gone all stony you’d surely break every bone in yer hand. Plus it sounds like dickhead, which is just hilarious. We may have been bladdered when we came up with it.” He admits with a charming smile.

“Ah, an Irishman nice!” Harry crows, attempting his own Irish accent and not sounding half bad at it.

“Aye, just moved to London a couple months ago and an old friend turned me onto this group, said I’d be welcome if I ever wanted to be among my own, so here I am.”

“And we’re glad to have you. Now, who’d like to do the honors this evening?” Dr. Flukes hand shoots up like a flag, his expression grim and his hand shakes a bit when he drops it back in his lap where he proceeds to wring them both one over the other.

“A couple of days ago I stopped a rape from taking place, or well I stopped the guy before could…finish. God, the things he was saying—calling her.” Fluke shook his head as though he could shake the images and thoughts right out of it. “They like to say we’re monsters because we’re different but non-mutants really ought to try looking in the mirror sometimes because they’re the true monsters.”

“He got away while I was seeing to the girl helping her cover up as best she could and whatnot, and I urged her to go to hospital and report it so the cops could catch the sicko but she refused, nothing I said could convince her. I think she was ashamed or blamed herself I don’t know, how could I, I’ve never been in her situation.” Fluke wraps his arms around his middle, shrinking in on himself as if the smaller he makes his body the easier it was for him to get the words out.

“I even tried reminding her that if she didn’t help catch this guy that he’d be free to do this again to someone else and that’s when she became hostile—turned on me told me to fuck off, that it was her body, reminding me that it was she who’d been attacked and just walked off like nothing ever happened and now I’m scared that it’s going to happen again to someone else. But what if next time me, or whoever, is too late?” His eyes are wide and panicked and a bit glassy by the time he is done looking to Harry—anyone for help, for answers.

It’s Madame Prudence beside him who rests a comforting hand on his knee and squeezes.

“Fluke, maybe she just didn’t feel comfortable talking about it with you, babe, she’d just been assaulted by a man, I bet the last thing she wanted was to go anywhere with another male, not even the one who’d rescued her. We can only hope that once she went home and calmed down and really comprehended what happened to her. She did the right thing and got herself checked out…did you do any follow up work? Ask around the local hospitals?”

Fluke’s eyes widen further. “No I…”

“It’s alright, Fluke, no one here is blaming you.” Harry assured in a calm voice.

“I just didn’t know what to do—didn’t understand how someone could just walk away and not want to help. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do since I got my power is _hel_ p.”

“And you did, you saved her from her rapist. Now it’s up to her to save herself.” Raven added sadly.

“How did you come into your power…you never said, and I’ve always been curious why you chose such a lame hero name.”

“Speedy!” Harry hissed, horrified. “This is hardly the appropriate time…”

“What? I can’t be the only one thinkin’ it.” The group grumbles their agreement and Fluke surprises them by sitting up, looking more himself again.

“It’s alright, Harry; it's pretty simple, unlike you all I wasn't actually born a mutant."

Speedy chuckled. “What're you saying you had mutant-ness thrust upon you?”

"It sounds dumb, believe me I know, but you know Spiderman’s unbelievable storyline about being bit by a radioactive spider? It sounds kind of lame and farfetched right? At least that's what I always thought, but now it doesn't sound so silly.”

“So you were bit by a spider and now you can turn invisible?” Speedy asked, his voice dripping with doubt.

“Not quite. I uh, signed up to be a test subject for this experimental drug when I was seventeen, I know it was a pretty dumb decision but I was a poor college student who needed the money—still am. At first there wasn't a reaction, but over the weeks after I first started taking the drug, parts of my body would flicker out sort of, like the lights might do during a storm. The limb would be there one second and gone another. It wouldn't be gone but for a few seconds, but it was long enough to freak me out, naturally, so I went back to the lab to tell the researchers and I’ll never forget the look of fear on their faces. I guess they were afraid I’d sue or something, and I would have, if they didn't pick up and leave.”

“When I returned a second time all I found was an empty building. With no answers for what was happening to me, or an antidote to stop it. I slowly started to fade away one body part at a time...I had no idea how to control it and spent all of that first year invisible but through practice, meditation, and loads of research, I figured it out and can now appear and disappear at will…I dubbed myself Dr. Fluke because this was all an accident, I’m the product of an experiment gone wrong, a walking cliché.”

The group ooh and ahh, never having heard of a man made mutant, and ask him about his year of invisibility and what tricks eventually helped him to control his power. When he’s done answering all their questions, Harry checks the time and announces there’s time for one more person to share so Lady Vertigo raises a dainty hand, looking more like royalty than a superhero.

She tells them all how she stopped a kid from being bullied on his way home from school, three on one, which are just the shittiest odds so she made them pay by giving them wedgies and warning that there was much more where that came from should she ever catch them messing with Trevor or anyone else again. 

Zayn was only half paying attention his focus on the blonde sat between Harry and Captain Calamity—Iceman. He’s been coming to these meetings for over a month now and has heard from just about everyone in the group at least once, all except the blue-eyed boy who has yet to utter a single word, not a peep. He just sits there quietly listening to the others sometimes chewing on his nails, his leg jiggling nervously, but he never offers anything not a personal story not even a comment on something someone else has said, to offer some support or reassurance, he was just sort of –there.

In his opinion he doesn’t really see anything overly special about him; doesn’t get why Niall went all starry-eyed over the guy. He’s one of the smallest in the room, not counting the girls, and between his hair and uniform, he looks more like Jack bloody Frost then a superhero, which makes it hard for Zayn to take him seriously.

Zayn tunes back into the conversation just in time to hear Speed Demon make a crack about being proud of Lady V, claiming to have taught her well and the way he says it makes Zayn wonder if there wasn’t a more intimate history there.

It’s the smile that finds its way onto Iceman’s face that catches Zayn off guard, he wasn’t expecting that. It’s big and wide and, well beautiful and Zayn can’t look away, watching the little lad laugh into his hand as Speedy continues to joke at Lady’s expense, not that Zayn heard a word of it, his senses dulling to white noise as everything suddenly became about Iceman. All he could hear was his light chuckle, all he could see was that smile and the way the light catches in his blue eyes—making them honest to god twinkle and all he can feel are the goose bumps breaking out all over his body and it’s all Niall’s fault.

The shirty bastard not only made it his mission to ruin Zayn’s dorm life but now he somehow managed to plague Zayn’s extracurricular activities as well, after all, if he hadn’t gone on about Iceman the other day Zayn wouldn’t have given the quiet blonde a second glance.

The meeting dissolves from there, as instead of sharing stories, Speedy takes over, using the rest of the hour to put on an impromptu comedy show. This time Zayn thinks about staying back for a bit, what harm could it really do if he got to know these folk a little better? But in the end he decides against it and heads for the door like always, and like always he hears footsteps following him and turns expecting to find Harry in all his dimpled glory, but it’s not, instead Magnum Force is standing there his arm stretched out as though he was about to tap Zayn’s shoulder.

Glancing passed Magnum, Zayn saw Harry engrossed in a conversation with Brickhead and realized Niall had been right about Harry’s fickleness because it seemed he’d moved on to the newest shiniest hero and that Zayn was old news.

“Leaving so soon?” Magnum asked, scuffing the toe of his silver boot on the carpet.

“Uh yeah, headed home.” Zayn admitted, rubbing at the back of his neck.

Magnum nodded. “It’s just you always seem to duck out straight after the meeting and that’s fine if you do, I just thought you’d like to know that we don’t bite…well most of us don’t, there’s no tellin’ what Speedy will do.” Magnum joked with a breathy laugh which Zayn had no problem joining.

“No it’s not that honest, I’m in school so there’s always some kind of school work I need to be doing and I can’t do it if I’m here making friends, that’s all…it’s nothing personal.” Magnum kicked at the carpet some more, refusing to look up.

“Oh ok, well, the offer stands. I know we’d all really like the chance to get to know you better.”

“Cool, I um wanna get to know you all too, maybe next week? Who knows I might even share?”

Magum’s head shoots up in surprise. “Really? That’d be brilliant.” And the blinding smile on his face is almost enough to make Zayn feel guilty about the fib.

“Yeah well I said _maybe_ …night, Magnum.”

“G’nite Pyro, have fun being a nerd.”

Zayn couldn’t help but snort. “If you think I’m a nerd you should meet my roommate!”

<><><> 

He’s sat in the rec room under the guise of studying for a trig exam, but really he’s secretly watching Downton Abbey, his guilty pleasure, when the show is interrupted by a newsbreak, as shaky image of a super villain by the name of Bizzy is trying to hold up a bank. Women and children can be heard screaming in the background and that’s all Zayn needs to see before he’s leaping off the couch ignoring his textbook as it falls from his lap to land on the floor and rushes from the room, ignoring Cher calling after him.

It takes him less than ten minutes to reach the bank and when he gets there he’s not alone, Iceman is already breaking a window with his elbow, seeing as Bizzy’s got the doors barricaded.

“Hey.” He whispers, hoping not to startle the blonde, but he jumps anyway, and whirls around putting his fists up for a fight. He lowers them when he sees it’s just Pyro and returns to what he was doing before the interruption. “Can I help?” He asks once Iceman’s got the window open enough to fit through.

Without a word Iceman kneels down, linking his fingers together and gestures for Zayn to use him to hoist himself through the window. Zayn does as instructed then reaches down to help the blonde pull himself in.

Once inside they survey the room and figure out that they must be in one of the backrooms, an office. They can hear Bizzy’s booming voice through the thick wall, threatening the hostages and demanding the tellers hurry up and fill the bags he’d brought with cash.

Iceman slinks towards the door without telling him, moving on his toes and staying close to the wall and shadows, forcing Zayn to scurry to keep up, more than happy to let Iceman take the lead.

Truthfully, this was his first time facing a Villain, all his other saves have been common criminal activity but this was big time, this was facing someone who possessed a power of their own, and sure he and Jay practiced mutant on mutant combat a few times, but it didn’t really count because he knew Jay would never really hurt him but Bizzy—Bizzy was pure evil and wouldn’t hesitate to obliterate him.

Iceman snapped his fingers bringing Zayn out of his thoughts and made a funny hand gesture that Zayn couldn’t even begin to translate before rushing into the main lobby, his gloved hand already starting to frost over so Zayn quickly followed suit igniting his fingertips.

With the two of them working together the whole fight took maybe twenty minutes.

The element of surprise was ruined thanks to a young boy pointing in their direction and shouting ‘look mummy we’re saved!’ causing Bizzy to spin around just in time to deflect Iceman’s icicle, using his telekinesis to move a chair to block it. Undeterred, Iceman sends three more in succession, but each time Bizzy uses something nearby to deflect them. He’s so focused on the blonde that he has yet to even notice Iceman’s backup so Zayn creeps to the side just out of the villain’s eye line and sends two fireballs his way catching him in the side and chest.

“Fuck, where the hell did—" Bizzy curses, looking around in confusion until his eyes finally land on Zayn and sends a chair flying right at him but it’s too late Zayn shoots off a couple more fireballs each one hitting their mark, and with Bizzy distracted, Iceman is able to land a few blows himself. And with a final surge of ice, he sends Bizzy careening into a nearby wall, effectively knocking him out.

They waste no time in tying him up for the authorities to do what they will with him and do their part to make sure all the hostages are freed and accounted for. They’re thanked over and over again by grateful hostages, and even the little boy who blew their cover gives them each a hug and tells them he wants to be just like them when he grows up.

It’s all enough to make up for the shitty times when Zayn’s barely acknowledged for his heroism.

Leaving the bank the two men stand on the curb at a loss for what comes next, at best they go their separate ways and see each other in next week’s meeting, but for some reason that plan doesn’t sit well with Zayn, and he finds himself speaking before he can think better.

“I can’t believe we’re the only ones that showed up…it’s one thing when we happen upon trouble and step in, but this was national news. There isn’t a telly anywhere in the city that isn’t running this story and none of the guys from group came? That’s so messed up.” Iceman shrugged, rubbing at a spot on his arm where Bizzy got him good with a ‘line starts here’ sign.

“We did.” He says simply and that’s true they did and together they took down a super villain, all on their own, which was pretty incredible. His veins were still zinging from the adrenaline rush.

“Yeah and got the job done too, you’re not half bad.”

Iceman rolls his eyes, forcing out a simple: “Thanks.” And Zayn has to suppress a growl of frustration, because getting this guy to talk was like pulling bloody teeth.

“Man of few words, I see?”

Iceman shrugged again. “I’m more of an action man.” He teases with a wink and Zayn narrows his eyes.

“Why’re you talking funny?” He couldn’t help but ask, he hadn’t noticed it with the monosyllabic answers Iceman was giving him but now having heard him speak a full sentence, he noticed that there was a strange grittiness to the other man’s voice that didn’t seem natural, like he was purposely altering his voice for some reason and it sounded sort of ridiculous.

“I’m not.” Iceman insisted sounding offended, but he no longer would meet Zayn’s eyes.

“I may not know what your voice is supposed to sound like but I know that’s not it.” Iceman cursed under his breath and if Zayn didn’t know any better he’d think he saw a telltale pink beginning to color the pale boy’s cheeks as he muttered something too low for Zayn to catch. “What was that?”

Iceman cleared his throat and stared at the ground. “Said it’s my Batman voice.” Zayn nearly doubled over laughing, grabbing at his stomach to try and ease the pain but to no avail.

“Oh man, I could’ve told you that was a bad idea—in fact, _Batman’s_ version of the Batman voice was a bad idea.” To Zayn’s surprise Iceman shot him a small side smile, rolling his eyes playfully.

“Everyone’s a critic.” He quips finally looking up. “I suppose if we’re done here, I’d best be off.”

Zayn swallowed hard, not prepared for how having those icy blue eyes trained on him would affect him. “Yeah uh, me too.” He stuttered out.

Iceman smirked and took off down the street. “Stay safe, Fire boy,” he called over his shoulder as he walked off in the opposite direction that Zayn was going.

“You too Iceberg!” He shouted back, cracking up when that gets a frosty one fingered salute in return.

<><><> 

Class lets out early on a Wednesday so Zayn decides to hit the dining hall for dinner since it’s pizza night in the cafeteria. He usually misses out on all the straight-out-of-the-oven pies because of class, but today he means to stock up, and even plans to grab a few slices to bring back to the room for Liam.

However, along the way he notices a tall chavvy dude looming over a smaller blonde and the tingles in the back of his neck go off and he really wishes he were a different type of person in that moment, the type of person who can turn a blind eye just this once and put himself and his wants first…he can practically taste the hot gooey cheese on his tongue, but unfortunately he’s not that type and instead he makes a beeline for the pair.

As he nears them he recognizes the tall bloke as Andy Samuels from the basketball team and the boy whose jumper he’s currently got clenched in his fist is none other than Niall. Now Zayn _really_ regrets not being the type of person to walk on by.

“What’s going on here?” He asks as he approaches the pair.

It’s Niall who turns to him in surprise and sneers. “Malik? This doesn’t concern you…” Zayn’s jaw drops at Niall’s nerve.

“Really, Niall? You’re the only idiot I know who would give someone shit for trying to help them.”

“Maybe because I don’t _need_ your help, can handle meself.” As if to prove a point he easily shoved Samuels away and started off in the direction of the dorms. After a moment Zayn took off after him, jogging to catch up.

“What the hell was that even about? Bullying in university? I thought we were supposed to be young adults, not teenage punks picking on smaller kids for their lunch money.”

Niall stopped to roll his eyes. “It’s not even like that asshole.”

“Oh I’m the asshole?” Putting his hands on his hips Niall sighs.

“Look we’re in the same Lit class and he asked me—no demanded that I write his paper for him, I said no but I guess he’s so daft he doesn’t know what even that word means. The papers were due today and as you can probably guess, numb nuts wasn’t happy about me showing up with just mine. He took the F and I was about to take a beating…end of story.”

“You were just gonna let him pound you?” Niall shrugged a single shoulder.

“It’s going to happen either way, don’t you see that you’ve just prolonged the inevitable, unless you’re volunteering to be my body guard and shadow me 24/7 he’s going to whoop my arse and have fun doing it. It’s just one beating man, an eye for an eye type deal. He got a failing grade so he gives me a black eye to make us even, then he goes back to ignoring my existence, what’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is...it’s _wrong_.” Niall’s face does this funny thing, but the look is gone before Zayn can really analyze it.

Niall pouts his lips mockingly. “Aw Zayn, I didn’t know you cared.” Zayn drew back as if struck.

“I don’t, I’m just really against senseless violence.”

Dropping the act Niall let out a heavy breath, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Look it’s _my_ arse that’s up for a beating and if I’m cool with it, then you damn well have no right to be bothered, so just let it go.”

This time when he walks away Zayn lets him, but he couldn’t just drop it and before he knew what he was doing he found himself walking towards the doors of the school’s gym where basketball practice should just be getting started. Slipping into the locker room undetected, he finds it empty save for Samuels, who was running late on account of messing with Niall.

Quickly shedding his street clothes Zayn pulled his hood and mask on and stepped out from the shadows creeping up behind Andy to slam him face first against a locker.

“What the fuck?” Andy cried out trying in vain to turn and see his attacker. “Mate, what have I done?”

“I am _not_ your mate.” Zayn gritted out, standing back enough so that Andy could finally turn around and face him.

“Hey, you’re that guy from the news…the flame crusader.” Samuels’ points out, eyes glowing with recognition. “Makes you sound more like a pouf then a superhero, if ya ask me.” He smirks, smugly crossing his arms over his chest.

“Good thing I didn’t then.” Zayn hisses, shoving him roughly into the locker a second time.

“Crikey, what’s all this even about, what’d I do?”

“I want you to back off the blonde Irish kid.”

“Who Niall?”

“Is that his name?” Zayn asked, playing dumb. “The one you had by the throat in the courtyard.”

“Look Horan owes me big and until he pays up I reserve the right to take my just deserves in the meantime.” Andy spat, bravely raising his chin to Zayn.

“Huh, that’s funny because I don’t remember giving you an option, this isn’t up for debate you shriveled pair of horse nuts you leave off Niall or else I’ll be back and next time it won’t be to _talk_ , ya feel me?” Zayn punctuated his threat by snapping the fingers of his right hand to ignite them and really drive home his meaning.

Andy gulped. “Yeah mate, I hear ya…consider his debt squared away.” Blowing out his fingers like you would the candles of a birthday cake Zayn used that same hand to not so gently pat Andy’s cheek.

“Thatta boy.”  

<><><> 

The meeting is in full swing by the time Raven comes limping into the room and Miz Mirage stops speaking mid sentence and practically bounds across the room to catch her just before she can collapse.

“My god what happened, babe?” Mirage asks, inspecting the injured girl as best she can from her position. Hozier gets up to help her get Raven settled in a seat.

“T-two men…had knives.” Raven whimpers, like even the act of breathing hurt.

“You broke up a knife fight?” Chameleon asks, sounding impressed.

“N-no, they…they attacked me.”

“What?” Lady V gasped, a hand coming up to cover her mouth in horror.

“Mutant ha-haters, co-cornered me. Sa-said they were going to make me nor-normal like them, said they wanted to _help_ me.”

“By mutilating you? Jesus, I’ll kill them!” Mirage stood and headed to the door to do just that both her fists clenched at her side, the nails biting into the skin of her palm hard enough to bleed.

“Miz Mirage no you can’t!” Harry cried out, standing and going after her, grabbing her wrist to stop her from going up stairs.

“The hell I can’t.” She grits out, easily wrenching her wrist out of his grip “Harry, look at her, look what they did to her.”

“I know.” He says in a soft voice, “and it’s terrible but you can’t go running off with your emotions so scattered, your powers are tied to your emotions, there’s no telling what kind of damage you may cause without even meaning to.”

“God Harry, I love you and respect what you’re doing here—what you’ve been through with your dad - but the reality is you’re not one of us, you’ll never experience the things we have go through on a daily basis, so fucking _let_ my powers do a bit of damage, I think it’s the least I can do…”

“Mizzy, that’s not fair and you know it!”

“Oh and this is? My girlfriend’s all cut up and trembling with fear, not because some evil villain came after her. No, just a couple of humans—so called _innocents_ trying to play God…bollocks!”

“I agree the men who did that to Raven are not innocents and I promise you justice will be served I’ll make a call to an old friend of my dad’s in law enforcement Raven can describe her attackers to a sketch artist and we can nab the bastards, but don’t you go taking the law in your hands, Mizzy. Don’t you stoop to their level.” With her lip still quivering Mirage’s head jerked stiffly and she shoved passed Harry to return to her girlfriend’s side. Harry moved to join her but not before Speed Demon popped up from his own seat, his movement so fast it sent his folding chair skittering clear across the room.

“Sod this!”

“Speedy, where are you go—” Speed Demon cut Harry off with a near lethal look.

“I’m done, finished…through with all of this, this _bullshit_. Humans can do that to one of our own and we’re just meant to sit back and let it happen, wait for the police to maybe do something about it. No, I’m sorry. According to you, Harold, we’re meant to sit back and talk about it, join hands round a bloody circle and sing kumbaya until all the bad feelings miraculously disappear. Well, I have news for you, they _don’t_ disappear, they manifest themselves into nightmares that we’re forced to relive over and over—I can’t remember the last time I got a full night’s sleep, honestly.

“I lose my appetite for no reason, can get lost in time just staring at a wall or out into space and come to realizing I’ve just missed hours of my life and can’t even remember why.  We put our lives on the line for you humans and get _shit_ on in return and I’m bloody well sick of it.”

Speedy’s hand shot out suddenly to punch a hole right through the wall and he barely even flinched at the pain, eyes slowly rolling up to meet the groups.

“I’m out; consider this me putting in my two week’s notice.”

<><><> 

They’re doing construction on the street he usually takes to work, so he’s forced to go the long way round, which takes him right by this cozy looking diner that he’s been meaning to try but never seems to have the time—or money, for that matter. There’s an imitation painting of George Seurat’s famous A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte that he loves to admire as he passes, but today he looks up and is struck frozen by the peculiar sight of Liam sat in a booth with what looks like a stack of pancakes in front of him—not that that’s cause for alarm a man is free to eat pancakes as he pleases, no what’s so strange is that sat across from Liam in the very same booth is Harry Styles.

Again this shouldn’t raise any flags for Zayn they go to the same school, they’re neighbors who share a bathroom, it shouldn’t been that surprising that the two of them might also be friends and yet there’s something suspicious about how far across the table they’re leaning, foreheads practically touching as they speak closely almost conspiratorially and given what Harry knows about him, about mutants he wonders what things he could be filling innocent Liam’s head with, things he has no business knowing.

He knows he’s being silly because there’s no way Harry even knows he’s Pyro and yet there’s still this wave of dread that washes over him at seeing them, paranoid that at that very moment Harry could be spilling all his secrets and that his roommate will never be able to look at him the same way again.

The little bit of normalcy Zayn’s managed to find in this world gone in the blink of an eye.

<><><> 

“Oi who moved the door to me room?” Niall shouts from just outside Zayn’s door and it’s not like he was sleeping or anything but he still finds it distracting that he can hear the drunken prick over his music. “Ay, Irwin, you move the door to me room? I know it twas you, ya right bastard, give it ‘ere. I’m quite pissed and could use a lie down to stop everything from spinnin’.” He hears Niall move further down the hall, giggling loudly when he knocks into something or someone.

“Oh no don’t you dare look back.” Zayn rolled his eyes because of course this was the point in the evening where Niall begins to sing, which is even worse than the shouting; it was all part of the blonde’s drunken routine.

He’d somehow find his way back to the dorms from whatever party he was at then wander the hallways looking for his room for a while, shouting random insults at people, both friends and strangers, until he finally gave up and slid down the wall to wait for someone to find him and take pity. And during this waiting period he always, without fail began to sing, off key and at the top of his lungs.

“Juss keep yer eyes on meh.” Niall pauses to giggle again before bellowing: “SHUT UP AN DANCE WIFF MEH!!!” Tonight Zayn isn’t too keen to play along, as he can already feel a migraine building at his temple from staring at his computer screen too long. So against everything in his body protesting, he pushes back from his desk and slips out into the hallway where he finds Niall slumped over sideways against the wall between their two rooms, which is actually the closest he’s ever gotten to his room on his own before.

Zayn would be impressed if he weren’t so annoyed.

“Alright, you bloody lush, let’s get you up and into bed, yeah?” Niall’s head rolled slowly at the sound of his voice and immediately broke out into a grin.

“Zaynie!!! My hero!”

Zayn rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I’m awesome, now come on I wanna get you inside before you decide the paint the hallway walls with yer vom.” Zayn joked, bending down to grab Niall’s arms, which were heavy and uselessly hanging at his sides.

“Not gonna vom, I’m Irish I never vom.” Niall mumbled but offered no resistance.

“If you say so.” Zayn conceded before wrapping the blonde’s arms around his neck. “Now hold on tight and I’ll try to pull you up.”

“Kay.” Niall mumbled and did as instructed, locking his arms around the older boy’s neck as he tried to pull the drunk boy to his feet, only problem, Niall’s legs were apparently just as useless as his arms.

“ _Stand_ Horan, bloody well use your legs to…fuck.” Zayn cursed as Niall nearly took them both down to the floor, but somehow kept his balance, it was Niall that was now lying crookedly on the floor and that position couldn’t be comfortable, and yet, the blonde looked content to just lay there like that until he sobered.

“You wanna try that again but this time use your bloody legs to stand once I lift ya?” The blonde blinked up at him for a moment, as if it were taking longer than usual for him to make sense of the words coming out Zayn’s mouth and then slowly Niall surprised Zayn by smiling up at him.

“You got some pretty eyes you know that?” Niall said in wonder, his own eyes gone soft as he reached up to trace the scar in Zayn’s left eyebrow.

“What?” Zayn asked, moving back in shock.

“Yeah they’re brown but not all the way brown, got a bit of green and gold and they’re awful pretty—you’re awful pretty, Zen.” Zayn can’t help but chuckle nervously at the odd turn this night has taken.

“And _you_ are completely _smashed_.”

“Why cause I’m actually saying this out loud?" Niall seemed to contemplate this, then winced looking as though he'd been hit between the eyes. "Shit you’re right, you’re right I must be sloshed I usually only think these things…keep them bottled up inside because you’re so annoying with that hair and that face and your loud bloody music. Speaking of, I see it’s a Drake night tonight, you done with the angry grunge music then?”

“No, because you’re smashed. How about I get you up and into bed so that we can pretend this conversation never happened.”

“Yes, please.”

They managed to get Niall standing on the second try and Zayn helps, mostly drags Niall the few feet to his door and begins pounding on it until finally a sleep rumpled Harry open it, completely naked and with a pillow crease in his cheek.

“What in the bloody hell…oh! Zayn, um hi.” He greets, as though Zayn just stopped by for a chat and isn’t currently baring the weight of his drunken roommate.

“Right, top of the morning to you too, as it’s three in the bloody morning, you know the time when most of the world is trying to sleep.”

“With Drake blasting in their ear?” Harry counters with a raised eyebrow.

“That’s not the point, I’m not like other people alright, and I happen to need loud music to sleep but even with my music ‘blasting’ I still heard this one drunkenly wandering the hallways looking for the door of his room and blaming random people for taking it, not to mention singing off key at the top of his lungs. How could you even sleep through it?”

Harry lifted one shoulder, as though it was no big deal. “I’ve trained myself to block out most noises, thanks to you I could probably sleep through the apocalypse.”

“You’re welcome?” Zayn joked tiredly. “Anyway, you mind taking this off my hands?” He asked finally gesturing to the drunkard in his arms who’d begun humming to himself.

“I am not a _this!_ I am a _him!_ ” The blonde insisted, nearly braining himself on the doorframe as Zayn transferred him over to Harry.

“Yeah I got him, thanks.” Gazing up at Harry, much like he’d done Zayn, Niall smiled warmly at his roommate.

“Hazza, my lovely, lovely Hazza, you always take such good care of me.” Harry smiles back amused, but his eyes widen and he looks to Zayn in a sort of panic.

“Oh um, anything he might’ve said tonight, it was all just rubbish, yeah…he talks a lot of shit when he’s pissed.” Zayn rolls his eyes so hard he thinks they may not roll back again.

“I’m sure, consider it forgotten, believe me some of the stuff he was blabbering about was way too weird to be true anyway.”

“Right, well goodnight then…and thanks.”

“Whatever.” Zayn muttered, turning on his heels.

<><><> 

Harry clears his throat nervously, staring out at the group, meeting their expectant faces waiting for him to impart some great wisdom regarding the current situation they’re facing but he’s just a man and from where Zayn’s sitting he looks just as clueless as the rest of them.

“First of all, I’d like to note that Speed Demon’s absence from group is not lost on me, he’s been a big presence and even bigger personality and his absence is felt, I hate that one of our brothers is missing but we’ve got to carry on…Magnum, you mentioned having something to share?”

Magnum ran a hand through his silver hair.  “Uh yeah just this silly story, really I was having breakfast with a mate the other day and when we were through we went for a bit of a walk, just to clear our heads, but because I can never really stop thinking all I could think about was Speedy, wondering if he was alright, if he’d done anything stupid—if he was eating.” He rolls his eyes in self-deprecation and the others laugh, Chameleon teasingly muttering ‘daddy of the group’ before covering his words with a fake cough.

“Yeah, yeah I know, but I can’t help caring for you lot, if that’s a crime then take me away.” He joked, crossing his wrists in mock arrest.

“Anyway, it’s while thinking all this that a little girl approaches me out of nowhere—now mind you I’m in civilian clothes and she tugs on the end of my shirt and in the most precious voice you’ll ever hear she asks me if I know how she might go about getting in touch with a superhero, actually her exact words were: _hey mister, do you know the number to call Super Iceman,_ how cute, right?”

“I looked to my friend before kneeling down to her level and told her that I was sorry but there was no such number and asked her why she needed to call a superhero and the poor thing began to cry as she told me her pet kitten Twinklebell was stuck up in a tree.” Magnum pouts at the memory.

“I told her that, while I wasn’t a superhero, I’d happily give it a go and so I climbed that tree and rescued little Twinklebell—got the claw marks to prove it and when I got back down and handed her over to the little girl I felt such a rush of fulfillment, seeing the joy on that little girl’s face—knowing I’d done that, I put that smile on her face, and as a civilian no less! I guess it was just a relief to do something so simple and mundane for a change…we get so caught up in the big saves that was forget to celebrate the little victories too.”

The room falls quiet as everyone takes that in and Zayn surprises himself as well as everyone else when he speaks up:

“I feel you on that, Magnum, it’s like for all I’m bitter about being given my gift, I’m also grateful for it because I get to do good and help people. From helping Iceman put Bizzy behind bars a couple weeks ago, to helping an old lady with her groceries, that warm feeling of satisfaction I get is the same no matter what the deed, it’s the intent behind it that fuels me.

“I used to be so envious of my roommate he’s like the most normal guy you’ll ever meet—everything I’ve been wanting for my entire life to--be a normal lad in uni, his greatest worry is whether or not he’s cited his paper correctly, which he never does, I always have to go back and fix it for him while he’s sleeping but I don’t mind, I like that we have that between us.” He cuts sharp eyes at Harry before he can stop himself, still a bit wary that he’s been poisoning Liam against him.

“But I don’t feel that way anymore, like when I’m at uni with my roommate or whatever I feel normal and when I’m out fighting crime I feel normal too…they’re both normal for me and I’ve finally figured that out, thanks to you lot…that I can have the best of both worlds, I don’t have to be ashamed of being a mutant.”

This time when group ends Zayn hangs back and grabs a cup of punch that Prudence made from real fruit juice, not from a pouch, it’s pretty good and he ends up downing three cups by the time Iceman approaches him.

“If you think that’s good now you should’ve tried it after Speedy spiked it with the good stuff.”

“Oh yeah?”

Iceman nodded. "But that’s just Speedy, always pushing the envelope, likes to test people…he even had a wager how long it would take you to open up, to stick around after group and get to know everybody.”

“And how’s that going?”

“He hit it right on the dot, actually…he’s really good with people.”

“Oh. So do a lot of you know each other—outside of group? I mean like do you socialize as civilians?”

“Not all of us but a couple, take Raven and Miz Mirage, they’re dating, have been forever they’re practically old marrieds, and Lady V and Speedy have known each other pretty much all their lives, grew up together. They used to go out but Speedy let his frustration and bitterness get the better of him and eventually drove her away. I’m pretty sure she’s with the Chameleon now, or at the very least their shaggin…caught her doing the walk of shame out his dorm room one morning, was pretty funny actually in a ‘you’re like a sister to be so I’d really rather not know about your sexual habits’ kind of way.”

“Wait you go to uni?”

“Erm yeah…most of us do, in fact, we’ve got to make a future for ourselves, just like anyone else don’t we? Superheroing doesn’t exactly pay the bills.”

“Right, it’s just...”

“What?”

“I wonder if we know each other. Like it’s weird to think that we could run into each other every day at school and not know it.”

“Aye, but that’s the fun in anonymity isn’t it?”

“I suppose so, besides who am I kidding if you think I’m anti-social in groups you should see me at school. I’m a bit of a loner, only really have one mate and he’s got no choice, we live together so he’s sort of stuck with me at least until the school year ends…no telling if he’ll ditch me after that.”

“I seriously doubt he will.” Iceman said matter-of-fact before snatching an Oreo off the snack table and twisting it apart and offering both halves to Zayn.

“Why do you say that?” He asked going for the cream half. But instead of answering Iceman popped the remaining half of his Oreo into his mouth and walked away.

<><><> 

Another day of uni down and Zayn will be happy to climb into bed after this day. Two pop quizzes in a row and he just got assigned a group project with this airhead in Psych—would’ve paired up with Jesy if he’d had a choice, but of course their professor had to be one of the last remaining knob heads who still assigned partners based on last name. So on top of having to do group work, which he hated, he had to work with someone who he didn’t know and probably wouldn’t be mush help anyway.

The last thing he needs is to see Niall getting bullied yet again. He’s writhing around on the green while this huge dude, who Zayn’s never seen before hovers over him, attacking him.

“Hey, leave him alone!” He shouts, sprinting over to them.

Niall’s eyebrows screw up in confusion as the big guy sits back on his calves, the blonde is out of breath when he growls, “Zayn, are you daft? We’re just mates hanging out. We were having a picnic lunch reminiscing about old times when this lug decided to start tickling me.” It’s Zayn’s turn to look confused.

“Picnic—like a date?” Zayn asks, surprised with how annoyed he is suddenly. Not only because he feels like a chump running over to rescue Niall only to find they were having a tickle fight but because of how close the two are the big fella still kneeling between Niall’s lazily spread legs.

“Did you fall on yer head or summat? No, as in friends having a meal, ya numpty.” Zayn can feel his cheeks heating up and would really rather Niall not see his embarrassment.

“Oh, I just thought because of what happened with Samuels that…” Now the blonde finally moves, leaning back on his elbows to glare up at Zayn.

“What so every guy bigger than me s'got to be threatening me is that it? You think I’m that fucking helpless?” Niall was pissed and honestly Zayn didn’t blame him.

“I didn’t say that...”

“You didn’t _have to_ , I don’t know why you even care to be honest but knock it off, alright, I don’t need anyone’s help, least of all _yours_.”

Now it's Zayn's turn to get angry. “Not unless you’re ten sheets to the wind, at least.” He mutters under his breath more than ready to be anywhere but there at the moment.

“What was that?”

“Nothing, just that when you’re bolloxed you sing a completely different tune is all.”

“Oh yeah and what tune is that?”

 _“You’re so pretty, Zen, your eyes are brown but not and pretty and I love your face.”_ He said all this in a dead on impression of Niall’s Irish brogue. It was almost uncanny. “Any of that ring a bell?”

Niall’s cheeks flush once more but for a whole different reason. “You’re barmy if you think I’d ever say that shit.”

“But you did...heard them with my own two ears, Harry did too—made me promise not to bring them up again, but I figured since you’re being right cheery to me that I’d return the favor.” Niall bit his lip as his irritation with Zayn grew and Zayn watched his hands begin to twitch, as though there was something they wanted to be doing but Niall was fighting it, perhaps he wanted to flip Zayn off but didn’t want to look like a dick in front of his mate or summat.

“Oi, I think you ought to leave it there, mate, you’ve clearly overstayed yer welcome.” The big guy spoke suddenly, his own deep Irish accent catching Zayn off guard. Turning to Niall the guy grinned. “What do you say we move this party elsewhere chief, those clouds over yonder don’t sit well with me, think it’s gettin’ ready to pour.” Sparing Zayn one last dirty look, Niall took a deep breath before he was finally able to return the smile.

“Sure Bres, let’s pack up and head to yours.” It wasn’t Zayn’s imagination that Niall put extra emphasis on the word yours, making sure Zayn knew just where they were going—alone and it shouldn’t bother him, what the fuck did he care where Niall had his picnics and with whom…but for some reason it did.

<><><> 

Zayn’s awoken by a scuffling outside his window and sits up in alarm, climbing out of bed he hurriedly dresses in uniform and slips out the window, grateful for once that they lived on the ground floor.

Either the fight isn’t as close as he first thought, or it’s moved, but by the time he finds the culprits they’re in a back alley a couple of blocks off campus and he’s shocked to see that it’s Magnum Force and Speed Demon who are going at it. They’re rolling around on the dirty, wet ground Magnum on top one minute and then Speed Demon taking over the next.

Speedy looks to be the only one fighting, Zayn watches him throw a punch and miss while Magnum just tries to avoid his fists, doesn’t throw any punches of his own.

“Quit trying to control my feelings, Magnum, that shit doesn’t work on me. I know all your tricks, remember?” Speedy grits out, trying to wrap his hands around Magnum’s throat.

“Lou, you don’t want to do this, this isn’t you—you’re not thinking straight.”

Speedy laughs this bitter sound. “On the contrary Li, for the first time everything makes sense. This is exactly what I need to do and not you or anyone else is going to stop me.” Zayn’s heard enough and without warning he jumps in to separate them.

“Oi! Break it up boys…what happen to the QTC oath to never use your power on another hero?” Speedy’s head whips around in amusement.

“Ah yes, the almighty QTC oath of shite…well guess what, Pyro, I am no longer a hero, so you can take that oath and shove it up yer arse for all I care!”

Magnum’s face falls and he’s suddenly tipping Speedy onto his back. “How dare you—” they go at it again and this time Zayn has to physically get between them the split them up but not before Speedy reaches out to pull Magnum’s mask off his face.

“Next time you see me.” He says, walking backwards and holding Magnum’s mask over his head like a trophy. “You better be ready to fight me because this means war, kemosabe.” He twirls the mask a couple of times before throwing it to the ground and high-tailing it out of there.

Zayn stares at the mask on the ground for a few beats before finally mustering the courage to tear his eyes away and slowly drag them over to the other boy.

To say he’s nervous would be an understatement, this will be the only mutant since Jay that Zayn’s seen without a mask, but curiosity gets the best of him, and he finally flicks his eyes up to meet familiar brown.

“ _Liam?_ ” Liam’s bushy brows knot up on his forehead in confusion for a moment before a panicked look takes its place and there goes the perfectly normal roommate idea right out the window.

“You know me? I mean, unmasked me? Shoot look you can’t say anything, I beg you, because it could not only put me in danger but _you_ as well and I—” Liam’s words get lost with his breath as Zayn rips his own mask and hood off.

Liam’s eyes go comically wide for a second before they’re both sharing an uneasy laugh.

“ _I’m_ the normal roommate you were talking about today in group—you envied _me?_ ”

“Thought I did, but as it turns out, you’re just as fucked as I am.”

“Speak for yourself, I’ve never been ashamed of what I am. I wasn’t lying when I told you I’d always dreamed of being a superhero, ever since I saw Mr. Untouchable stop a plane from crashing to the ground over some state in America, I knew that’s what I wanted to use my gifts for…to give back, save lives…try to make the world a better place in my small way.”

Zayn nodded in understanding. “I just didn’t want to have to hide anymore that’s why I came to London. A mate of mine, a fellow mutant he told me they were more accepting of us in the city—called us heroes and I liked that idea.”

“You hid your gift growing up?”

Zayn nods slowly as though it should be obvious. “Didn’t you?”

“No, it wasn’t widely accepted where I’m from and I got the snot kicked out of me on more than one occasion, but I didn’t care those people had hate in their hearts and that was on them, not me…it wasn’t my fault they had a problem with me for being different, ya know? I took up boxing; it gave me something to do not to mention a six pack and these guys.” He said, flexing his impressive arms. “Which helped to avoid having to defend myself, bullies were less likely to try and mess with someone who could knock them out cold with a single blow.” Zayn’s upper lip curls in disgust.

“Why are there people like that in the world?” All Liam can manage is a helpless shrug.

“I don’t know…keeps things balanced? Like there’s got to be wrong for us to know the difference between what’s right and what’s not, yeah? I suppose that’s why we have villains, mutants who have gone astray.”

“Speaking of villains, do you think Speedy was serious?”

Liam worried his lip. "Louis may joke about a lot of things, but unfortunately this isn’t one of them, and when he sets his mind to something, he means to see it through to the end…we’ve got to tell Harry—huh reckon you know he’s our neighbor, then?”

“Yes, Liam, I have eyes. He doesn’t wear a costume, remember?”

Liam pulled a face, laughing at himself. “Oh right, it’s just, wasn’t it hard for you seeing him day in and day out unable to tell him that you were Pyro?”

“It was weird at first but I got over it, it helped that me and Harry have never been very close to begin with. What about you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I saw the two of you eating breakfast the other day while heading to work…at the time I thought Harry had found out that I was Pyro and was telling you, thought you were going to start acting weird around me.”

“Oh no, we were talking about Louis, err Speed Demon and how worried we were. As you can see he has no impulse control and Harry feared this would happen, but I had more faith in Lou—didn’t think he’d ever switch teams. He’s got too much heart.”  Zayn nodded, he barely knew Speedy but even he would never have guessed he’d be the one to go rogue.

“So what’s going on between you and Harry, you’re just mates?” Liam poked at a cut on his cheek.

“What do you mean?”

“Well the two of you looked mighty cozy sharing a booth…” Still Liam stared blankly at him, not picking up on what Zayn was hinting at.

Finally his eyes bugged out and a faint flush started to creep its way into his cheeks. “You think me and Harry are…oh no, it’s not like that. I mean, he doesn’t _see_ me like that, he’s great though, and has those dimples and that smile and he’s great, isn’t he great? But we’re just friends, totally.”

“Totally.” Zayn repeated looking overly amused. “Obviously.”

Liam frowned. “Alright, wise guy, let’s get back to the dorms and I’ll text him to meet us in our room.”

“Are you sure he’s going to answer, he told me he could sleep through an apocalypse.”

“Firecrackers, you’re right! I guess this’ll have to wait until morning, which is just as well since there’s not a whole lot we can do tonight anyway.”

“Did you just say firecrackers instead of fuck?”

“No…” Liam lied, looking away.

“You totally did.” Zayn teased, throwing a friendly arm around Liam’s neck as they made their way back to the dorms. “Nice to see something’s weren’t a lie.”

<><><> 

“I can’t believe you’ve been Pyro this whole time, you’re like so nice and interesting and _nice_ when you don your super suit…so why are you such a prick the rest of the time?”

Zayn snorted. “I guess that’s open to interpretation because not everyone thinks I’m a ‘prick’.”

“I don’t think you’re a prick.” Liam chimes in from his seat on Niall’s bed where he’s been playing a one-man game of catch with a tennis ball he found on the floor. Zayn shot Harry a self-satisfied smile, as if to say ’see’.

“That’s not fair; Liam doesn’t count because I’m almost sure he could find redeeming qualities in even the most evil of men.”

“Fine whatever, so what’re we gonna do about Speed—uh Louis?”

“Hold up, I have one last question…what is up with the music—why on earth must you play it so bloody loud all the time?”

“It helps with the tingle.” Zayn said simply.

“The tingle?”

“I think he means that feeling we get at the back of our neck and down our spine when someone’s in danger…all mutants have it.” Liam explained, still mostly distracted by his game.

“Is that all? Well damn, Zayn, haven’t you done your research? A cup of ginger tea with honey will do the trick just as well—probably better.”

“I’ll be sure to try it, now about Louis becoming a super villain.”

Harry sighed, “There’s not really much we can do except try to talk some sense into him, but I don’t reckon we can do it alone.” Zayn had to agree with him there.

“So we tell the group what’s going on and ask for volunteers, the closer their relationship with Louis the better.”

“We’ll definitely want Lady Vertigo in then.” Liam suggested and Harry nodded his agreement.

“For sure, and I know she’ll _want_ to help more than anyone.”

“I’d imagine everyone will want to help, I mean I barely know him and I’m on board.” Zayn pointed out.

“You’d be surprised, Zayn, a lot of the others haven’t taken his walking out well, so throw in that he’s now turning to evil and…” The sound of the door opening catches the three of them off guard making hem freeze like deer in headlight.

Niall stares similarly back, eyeing each of them individually, his confusion more than apparent, not that Zayn blamed him, he’d been suspicious at just seeing Harry and Liam together in a diner, he can’t imagine what must be going through Niall’s mind right now entering his room to find his roommate having a casual pow-wow with the neighbors, neighbors who before now, hadn’t even been the kind of friends you borrow notes off of let alone the type who stop by to chat.

“What’s up lads? What’s the craic?”

“Oh nothing just um, sitting here, um sitting.” Harry stutters like an idiot, so Liam steps in to help but because he’s still Liam and super powers or not, he’s still the worse liar Zayn has ever met. What comes out his mouth is weak at best and complete rubbish at worst.

“We just came by to check on our girl Yoncé…she hasn’t snuck over to visit in a while and we got worried.” It’s such a ridiculous excuse and Zayn can tell Niall isn’t buying it but instead of calling Liam out on it he puts on a smile and shrugs.

“Haz, wanna go halfsies on a pizza since we’re having guests over?” Harry readily agrees and that’s how Zayn and Liam get stuck watching The Winter Solider over a chicken and veggies pizza for himself, Liam, and Harry and a meat lovers that Niall refused to share with anyone else, not that Zayn would eat it, there was at least three types of pork on it but it was the principle of the whole thing that grated his nerves.

Other than that the night isn’t altogether horrible, mostly because a movie was a safe ground for them, you weren’t supposed to talk during a movie and no talking meant no insults, no insults meant that they could pretend just for a moment that they were friends or something.

When the movie is over and there’s nothing left of the two pizza’s but crust and sauce stains, Zayn stands up to stretch his muscles after sitting for so long, his shirt rides up a little and he could swear he catches Niall eyeing his bare abdomen. Liam suggests they watch another movie, already starting to head to their room for his copy of The Dark Knight but Zayn stops him, speaking through a yawn.

“Sorry Li, but I’ve reached my social quota for the night.” Liam pouts for all of a second before he perks right back up and turns to the other two

“What about you lot?” Niall looks like he wants to say no but before he can get a word out Harry is happily nodding his head, shooing Liam out to fetch the movie while he goes to the communal kitchen to make some popcorn. Helpless, Niall settles in for another movie and Zayn would feel sorry for him, except that it’s Niall, so instead he does a mental Nelson from the Simpsons’ laugh and smugly escapes to his own room.

<><><> 

Tonight’s meeting has a somber tone to it, much like the meeting before, as the weight of Louis' absence falls on everyone’s shoulders. But at least this time whoever was in charge of setting the chairs up was smart enough to put one less chair out, so they wouldn’t have the empty chair as a visual reminder.

“Guys, I’m sorry to have to say this, but today’s meeting is going to have to be cut short on account of some terrible news I received this morning. It seems our friends and brother Speed Demon has not only left the group, but the cause as well, and is thinking of turning to a life of crime and evil.” The room is filled with gasps as everyone begins to talk at once, voicing their concerns.

“I know, this is horrific and alarming news and that’s why I didn’t cancel the meeting. I thought you all deserved to know and to be warned that if you encounter him on the street that he is no longer a friend and to be wary. I also wanted to ask if you wouldn’t join us in our effort to stop him before he does something he’ll regret.”

“We don’t want it to have to come down to a fight but will do what is necessary to save him…those interested in being a part of the team please stay, everyone else—and it’s alright, we understand if you’d rather not get involved, but I’m going to have to ask you to please leave while the rest of us strategize.”

Luke and Calum are the first to stand.

“We’re sorry, Haz, but…” Harry raises a hand to cut Luke off.

“It’s alright boys, meetings return to normal next week, so we’ll see you then.”

Next Hozier climbs to his feet and regretfully leaves but not without saluting them good luck.

After that one by one the group dwindles down as members not interested in getting caught up in this mess jump ship. Finally a still injured Raven stands and it looks like it really hurts her to do so in more ways the one.

“I can’t, Haz; you know I would if I were up for it.”

“I understand, Jade; get yourself better for us, yeah?” She nods her head and rises from her seat with the help of her girlfriend.

“Cher?” Harry asked and Zayn had to do a double take at who Harry was talking to and saw Miz Mirage lift her shoulders. He honestly would never have guessed the girl who hogged the telly watching soaps was also a powerful mutant.

“I’m game, just let me see her home safely and I’ll be back.”

“I can do it.” Madame Prudence speaks up suddenly, voice small and ashamed. “I wish I were brave enough to help but I’m just not…I can see Jade home, but before I go I must warn you if you’re going to act, make it now. I’ve just gotten a vision and he’s already plotting his first evil deed and it involves a bus full of innocent children.”

“Louis would never!” Lady V insists, glaring at Madame Prudence for even suggesting such a thing.

“He would El.” Prudence said, with a sad shake of her curls. “It’s to avenge Raven, he found out one of her attackers is a school bus driver and he means to send the man over a cliff, not even caring that he’d also be killing the children in the process…he’s blinded by rage—act fast guys, before it consumes him.” The two girls wish them luck and just like that their group of twenty-two is cut down to just nine: Chameleon, Brickhead, Miz Mirage, Lady Vertigo, Average Joe, Magnum Force, Iceman, Harry and himself all that remains of Louis' last hope.

<><><> 

Time is of the essence so they don’t waste any of it coming up with a plan, figuring if they meet him on his turf that Louis will feel less threatened, won’t see it as them attacking him but paying him a friendly visit at his home—they just want to talk, convince him that turning evil is not the answer, no one wants it to come to blows.

In hindsight, they should’ve known that ambushing him at his flat wasn’t a good idea. It puts Louis immediately on the defensive, feeling cornered, and much like a caged animal, he strikes out at the nearest body, sending Miz Mirage flying across the room. As planned Iceman shoots two ice shards towards him, hoping to pin him to the wall by his cape so that they could talk to him, but Louis is so fast that he not only moves out of the way, but switches places with Harry, putting him in the line of danger. Before anyone can stop it Iceman’s shard hits Harry right in the chest causing him to scream.

Harry should be dead, or dying, no mere human could survive being impaled by an ice shard, and yet, there he lay, looking shocked and breathing heavy but _alive_.

“Harry, Haz fuck are you…” Liam freaks, voice trembling with worry as he rushes to Harry’s side.

“I’m…fine, it hurts like a motherfucker but other than that I’m fine...how am I fine?” Zayn moves over and with a heated hand melts the shard down to nothing and they all watch as the wound closes up right before their eyes.

“Holy shit!” Iceman blurts without thinking.

“Ditto.” Chameleon jokes, unable to tear his eyes away from Harry’s chest, namely the spot where there ought to be a gaping wound.

“But what does this mean?” Harry asks no one in particular.

“It means that the mutant gene your father had didn’t skip a generation after all...I think you’re immune to other mutant’s powers or summat.” Miz Mirage explains in amazement.

“Only one way to find out.” Average Joe ventures touching his temple he tries to see into Harry’s mind but is blocked by some invisible wall, shakes his head. “I got nothing.”

“What about you, Liam?” Harry asks turning to Liam, green eyes meeting brown. “Make me feel something.” He whispers.

“Al-alright.” Liam closes his eyes to concentrate, pictures Harry and thinks giddy— _giddiness_ , children’s giggles, bubbles, clowns, Christmas mornings, beach holidays all things that would make one giddy with happiness then opens his eyes. “How do you feel?”

Harry does a self-examination. “Excited about the prospect of having a super power, worried about Louis—sort of hungry. Think we ought to have eaten dinner before setting off on this mission.”

Liam’s shoulders fall. "Then my power didn’t work either.”

“Stand aside boys; I’ll get this sorted once and for all.” Zayn promised making a show of building a fireball before letting it fly in Harry’s direction everyone watched as the flame dispersed before it could make contact the flames fanning out around him leaving not a curl on his head out of place.

“I repeat, Holy shit.”

“For once Iceman, I think you speak for us all.” Lady V admitted with a laugh.

“How am I just now finding this out? Are you telling me none of you has ever tried to use their power on me?”

“We took that oath in group remember, the one where we vowed to never use our power on another member, and well, that _includes_ you, Haz.” Harry made a thoughtful noise just as Liam stood forward looking quite stricken.

“I know this isn’t the time for it but.” Harry looks up from where he’s been studying his chest - looking for any sign there’d been an ice shard imbedded there to ask Liam what he was on about, but Liam shocks the breath right out of him by cupping him by the back of his neck and tugging him forward, their mouths meeting in a gentle kiss that was long overdue.

Pulling back Liam continued to speak a mile a minute his words almost slurring together “It’s just I thought Lou had hurt you and if I never got to tell you how I felt I’d just…” Harry cuts him off with another kiss this one fierce and a bit desperate as he claws at Liam’s back trying futilely to tear at his Lycra uniform to feel skin.

With everyone’s attention focused on Harry and Liam, Louis tries to sneak out but Average Joe reads his thoughts and alerts the others, and in the blink of an eye Lady Vertigo is at the door blocking him.

“Going somewhere, love?”

“Yes, actually.” He snarls and shoves her out of the way before bolting.

They give chase, though only Lady V can keep up; it used to be their thing, always twelve steps ahead of everyone else, leaving the world behind in a blur like a supersonic Bonnie & Clyde. She tries talking some sense into him, tells him he can’t run forever and reminds him that this is not the life he dreamed of as a little kid.

“Oh yeah? Did I dream of my friends being mutilated by asshats? Did I dream of a world where I’d be blamed for showing up too late, like it’s my fault? But I guess as far as those ungrateful twats are concerned I might as well be the one with the gun or knife. Nevermind that I just saved their sorry asses, but I needed to be punctual as well…must’ve skipped that chapter in the _How To Be a Superhero_ manual.” She ends up chasing him into an alleyway that’s got only one exit and he growls when he nearly brains himself running towards the wall at full speed.

“Why you no good bint.” He snarls turning to face her, but she’s no longer alone, the gang has caught up and stand their ground united in their efforts to block his pathway out of there.

“I suggest you all move before I run right through you. Make a Lou shaped hole in the lot of you, like a bloody roadrunner cartoon.”

“If that’s what you feel you need to do, then go ahead, but we’re not budging. We won’t give up on you.” Harry informed him, linking his arms through Zayn and Miz Mirage’s arms.

Louis shrugged unfazed. “Suit yourself.” He tried to take off at full speed but something grabbed him from behind.

“Not so fast, Speedy.” The Chameleon said, stepping out from against the wall, his skin the perfect replica of a brick wall to take hold of Louis, locking his arms around him in a deadlock.

“You really think you’re strong enough to hold me?” Louis snarled, thrashing about, trying to free his arms.

“Maybe he isn’t, but I certainly am mate.” Before Louis realized what was happening Brickhead had come out of nowhere to take Chameleon’s place, putting him in a half nelson.

With Louis trapped in Brickhead’s arms, the alleyway suddenly vanishes to reveal they’ve actually been in a Tesco car park the entire time.

“Are you fucking kidding me, it was all an illusion? Fucking A, Cher!”

“It’s for your own good, babe.” Cher assured, looking genuinely sorry that it had come down to this, but Louis just stuck his nose up in the air and refused to even look at her.

Deciding to take Louis back to his flat and finally have the intervention they came for, Brickhead half dragged half carried Louis most of the way, but a little more than halfway to his apartment he dug his heels into the ground, catching Brickhead off guard as he tripped over Louis, taking them both to the ground. While down there Louis threw his head back into Brickhead’s chin, forgetting the older man was in rock mode and cried out in pain.

“You eejit, why would you do something dumb as that?” Brickhead asked, relinquishing his hold on Louis to inspect his head for injury. Still reeling from the hit but not enough to get him to give up Louis started to take off once again but Zayn realized what he was doing, and without thinking shot a fireball at him in hopes of slowing him down, only he’s never been great with hitting moving targets and misses Louis by an inch and catches Iceman in the side of his head.

“Iceman!” Everyone stopped what they were doing to move to Iceman’s side, Harry pillowing the blonde’s head in his lap.

“He needs A&E we’ve got to get him there.” He cries out, stroking an unconscious Iceman’s hair.

“Shit I didn’t mean to I…”

“We know that, Pyro, it’s fine we’ll just call 999 or, Brickhead, maybe you can carry him there, yeah?”

“I’ll do it.” Louis spoke in a small voice looking pained at the sight of his fallen mate. “I can get him there the fastest…fuck, Iceman, I keep telling you you’re not bloody bullet proof...or Harry, apparently.” Louis jokes weakly his go to coping mechanism in times of crisis.

No one laughs.

“Does this mean you’re calling a truce?” Harry asks face and voice deathly grave.

Louis nods. “Yeah, for Iceman…will you let me run him to A&E Haz?”

“You’ll have to unmask him and here.” Harry instructs him stripping off his jacket and handing it to Louis. “Put this on him to hide his suit until you can get him in a hospital gown and we’ll be right behind you as soon as we can!”

“Yes sir.” Turning to Lady V, Harry has to bite his lip to stop it from shaking.

“El, you’ll go with him?”

“Of course.”

<><><> 

By the time Zayn and them arrive Iceman’s already being seen, everyone is restless pacing the floor of the waiting room, filling up on coffee or trying to catch some sleep. It’s weird seeing everyone unmasked, Zayn can’t believe he knows most of them from school. Chameleon, or Ed, is the RA of his floor! Lady V is a girl called Eleanor, a fashion major that he sometimes sees leaving the art building when he’s entering it. Brickhead is Niall’s old mate from Ireland—Zayn wonders if Niall knows his friend’s secret and how he feels about it, wonders how he feels about mutants in general.

He feels terrible and vows that if he’s permanently harmed Iceman in any way that he’ll never use his power for good, or otherwise, again—he can’t risk hurting anyone else, Niall was right, all fire is capable of is destroying, that’s all he ever does.

A doctor finally comes out to speak with them after what feels like ages. He assures them that Iceman should make a full recovery. Tells them that he is showing only signs of second-degree burns, which is odd given the level of heat he was exposed to. His burns were mostly superficial and already healing when he got there, but they treated and bandaged them and put him on pain medication. 

They want to keep him overnight, possibly longer for observation. and to monitor his left eye because he is at risk of losing sight in that eye if not watched carefully. Zayn feels his stomach drop to his feet and thinks he might be sick when he hears that.

“Can we see him?” Harry asks around the huge lump in his throat but to their disappointment the doctor shakes his head.

“He’s out cold and will be for some time, I’m afraid.”

“That’s alright, we just really need to know he’s ok, need to see it with our own eyes.” Harry insists giving the doctor his best puppy dog eyes. For a moment the two of them just stare at each other in some sort of standoff but finally the doctor sighs. 

“Fine, but I’m afraid no more than three of you, the rest will have to wait until morning.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

It’s agreed that Harry, Zayn and Louis will go in and come back to report to the others. Taking a deep breath, Zayn pulls the door open and nearly sinks to the ground right then at what he sees.

Pushing him aside Harry looks himself and has to cover his mouth at the sight.

“Oh god…Niall?” Harry rushes over to the bed to reaches up to caress the cheeks of the uninjured side of his face with a trembling hand. Zayn followed suit, going to the other side of the bed.

He starts to reach for Niall’s hand but thought better of it.

“What you guys didn’t know?” Louis asks looking genuinely confused. “But Haz, you _live_ with him, for fucks sake.”

Harry slowly shook his head. “He never told me, how the hell did he keep this from me?” Zayn wants to point out that he and Liam managed to keep their secret from each other for the same amount of time, but is having trouble finding his voice.

“I think I’m going to be sick, it was bad enough when I knew I hurt Iceman, but _not_ Niall.”

Harry makes a surprised noise. “What are you saying? Zayn do you have feelings for Niall?”

Louis doesn’t wait for Zayn to respond and instead answers for him. “Course he does…the two of them are like a bloody soap opera.”

“How would you know? You don’t even go to our uni.”

“Cher duh, she’s known your identities for a while now and claims that watching the two of you is better than any soap on the BBC. So much unresolved sexual tension.” Harry turns to Zayn for confirmation but all Zayn can manage is a sheepish shrug.

“I don’t know when it happened but I _care_ about him, don’t want anything to happen to him but I also like to argue with him, though I suppose the reason why has changed. It used to be he pissed me off and that was the end of it, but now I find myself looking for reasons to get pissed off, just to start a fight so I can get that rush, that heat that only he can give me, the red hot bubble in my veins that’s like a drug.”

“Whoa, if you get that hot and bothered just yelling at each other imagine what the sex would be like.”

Zayn’s eyes nearly bug out of their sockets and if Louis were standing any closer he surely would’ve knocked him upside his head but as it was telling him off would have to suffice. “Bro, shut up, man.”

“Aw, did I strike a nerve? Is it because you don’t think he returns the feelings, because dude give it a rest, I know you’ve seen yourself in the mirror.”

Zayn can’t help but blush, he’s been told he’s attractive more than a time or two. but it never fails to make his skin prickle. “So I’m easy on the eyes, so what, that doesn’t mean my face is widely appealing or anything.” Louis and Harry share a look, communicating with just their eyes.

“I’m going to have to agree with, Lou. I’ve mentioned it to Niall a couple of times, mostly just teasing him about having feelings for you and he’d always turn red as an apple each time and try to play it off as annoyance but I never bought it. I know a blush when I see it, so I don’t really think you’re alone in this, Zayn.”

“Well, we’ll never know if he doesn’t wake up.” He murmurs, finally taking Niall’s hand in his, no longer caring what the other two thought.

“Don’t be daft, of course he’s going to wake up, he’s a mutant, remember? Super healing ringing any bells? In fact, I wouldn’t put it past him to wake up long before the doc expects him to. We just have to be good little lads and wait.”

Zayn starts to argue with him but a nurse walks in to check Niall's vitals and that his bandages are still in place. Harry watches her for a bit before realizing he’s staring and makes a _yikes_ face in embarrassment.

“We should probably go let the others know he’s alright and get out this nice nurse’s way.”

“Oh you’re fine, love; I’m pretty much done here.” She assures him with a flirty smile that Louis rolls his eyes at.

At the same time Zayn blurts. “I can’t leave him.”

“You don’t have to, doll, you can sit right there in that chair and stay with him all night, if ya like. I could even fetch you a blanket, if you like.” The nurse says, nodding at the chair over by the window.

“Thank you but I’ll be fine.”

“Okay then, stop by the nurses’ station if you change your mind.” He nods to her back as she leaves just as quickly as she’d come in.

Once she’s out of earshot Harry asks. “You’re really staying?”

“I _can’t_ leave.” He repeats.

“Alright then, you can stay and sit by Nialler’s bedside, be the first one he sees when he wakes up…it’ll be proper romantic.”

Zayn groans, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking up at the ceiling to ask whoever was responsible for creating Louis why he or she decided to do such a thing. “Do you ever shut up?”

“Nope.”

Zayn groaned a second time. “Could always fry my ear drums to shut you out permanently.” He threatened, flicking the flame of his index fingers on and pretending to stick them in his ears.

“Resorting to self mutilation just to shut me up, eh? I think we’re going to be really good mates, you and me.” Louis boasted, with a proud smile that had Zayn shaking his head because he didn’t get Louis, didn’t think he ever would.

That doesn’t stop him from smiling to himself at Lou’s prediction, and though he’d never admit it - not out loud anyway, not yet - he hoped Louis was right.

Harry rolled his eyes but his fond smile belied his exasperation as he steered Louis out the door. “Text me if you need me.” He yelled over his shoulder, holding his mobile up for emphasis.

Zayn looked down at the pale hand he held, admiring the way their hands looked clasped together. “I will.” He promised without looking up.

<><><> 

Zayn startles awake when Niall’s hand is suddenly snatched from his and he sits up in his chair to find the blonde staring wide-eyed at him, trying in vain to cover the exposed side of his face.

“Zayn? What’re you doing here?” He asks in that weird 'Batman' voice of his that Zayn now knows is to cover his prominent Irish accent.

Zayn sends him a sleepy incredulous look. “What do you think, _Iceman_?”

Niall gasps, lowering his hands. “How did you…you’re one of us?”

“Got it in one.” Zayn smirked, pointing a finger gun at the blonde with the end of his index finger ablaze.

“Pyro.” Niall breathes and finally relaxes into his pillows. “You must really love seeing me laid up and helpless, probably wish your fire ball had done the trick though, ay?”

“Don’t.” Zayn growls, eyes narrowed.

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t say stupid shit like that, of course I don’t wish you were dead, Niall.”

“You mean Iceman…you _hate_ Niall—me.”

Zayn takes in a shuddery breath, hates that it’s gotten this bad between them. “Not so much.”

“Come again?”

“I _don’t_ hate you…not anymore, maybe I never did. It’s true you can be beyond annoying, nearly drove me up the wall a time or two, but I also feel this irrational protection over you. I can’t explain it…that’s why I stepped in when I saw Andy messing with you or when I thought Bressie was giving you a hard time. And I’m not even going to try and deny that I’m not attracted to you because it’d be pointless, I’ve always thought you were hot, even if your sense of fashion leaves something to be desired.”

“Hey!” Niall whines in protest but Zayn stands his ground.

“Babe, you own a jumper with a cartoon duck on it, for god sakes.” After a beat Niall concedes, crossing his arms and pouting.

He gestures for Zayn to continue.

“And sure we fight all the time but I think I kind of like that too, it’s exciting—you ignite this fire inside me, but unlike my gift, this fire is one I’ve got no control over and it’s _exhilarating_.”

“You make me feel alive.” He finally admits and his entire body is shaking by the time he meets Niall’s eyes shocked at the anger he finds there.

“Are you taking the piss with me? Did Louis put you up to it?”

Zayn can’t believe Niall thinks he’d ever do something like that, they’ve pulled little pranks on each other like switching his shampoo for cat fur cleaner or the time Niall shaved his initials into Zayn’s leg hair but he could never be that cruel. “No, why would I…ok don’t answer that.” He says remembering the time he changed Niall’s alarm by an hour making him late for a job interview, even he had to admit that he’d gone too far with that one, almost costing Niall his job, but in his defense he hadn’t known about the interview.

“I meant every word, Niall, I’m literally baring my soul to you right now and—“

“C’mere.”

“What like—“

“Like come here.” Niall repeats patting the bed beside him.

“I don’t think I’m allowed and you’re hurt I don’t want to...”

“What this?” He scoffed, gesturing to the covered half of his face. “It’s nearly completely healed I just didn’t want to remove the bandages and freak the nurses out. They don’t know I’m a mutant yet and I’m pretty sure humans do not recover from second degree burns over night.”

“Oh.”

“So, are you going to bring your nonexistent arse over here or are you going to make the invalid come to you?”

“Hey, too far.” Zayn whined but did as requested rising from the chair to stand beside the bed, letting out a surprised squeak when Niall immediately snakes an arm around his waist to bring him in closer, to whisper into the skin just below his ear.

“It’s alright, babe, it may not be much but it’s enough fer me.” To prove his point he lets his hand slip down to give Zayn a playful squeeze.

“Wha—oh!” Niall smirked. “So does this mean you fancy me?” Zayn couldn’t help but ask, leaning in close enough so that their foreheads touched.

Niall schooled his features into indifference. “Hm, mayhaps…I mean, you are pretty with your not just brown eyes and that _face._ ”

Zayn drew back in surprise, pointing an accusing finger at the blonde. “Wait, so you do remember saying all that the other night?”

“No, I don’t, honest, but I’ve thought it too many times for it not to be the truth.”

“Yeah well, I like your face too, it’s my favorite.” Niall grinned happily, his smile slowly fading as his eyes move down to Zayn’s mouth.

“There’s one thing I forgot to point out, though.”

“What’s that?”

“Your mouth it’s fucking ridiculous.” Now it’s Zayn who is grinning so wide his cheeks begin to sting a bit.

“Oh yeah?” Niall nods.

“Yeah because it’s not kissing mine, what’s that about?” He asks with an exaggerated pout.

Zayn pretends to think about it. “Huh, you know you’re right that _is_ pretty crazy—we should definitely fix that.” Niall’s answering smile is almost enough to tempt Zayn to jump him right there, the fact that someone could walk in on them at any moment be damned.

“Go on then.” The blonde purrs, his blue eyes twinkling mischievously.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Zayn ducks forward to catch Niall’s mouth in a sweet, lingering kiss, gently nibbling on the other boy’s bottom lip until he’s whimpering into Zayn’s mouth before pulling away.

“How was that?” Zayn asks a little breathless.

Niall, whose eyes still haven’t opened, wrinkles his brow in displeasure at no longer being kissed. “Mm not sure, think I need another go to decide.” Shaking his head in amusement Zayn moves in again, this time bringing his hand up to caress Niall’s smooth jaw, humming pleasantly against the blonde’s lips. It’s much harder pulling himself away this time but he somehow manages, licking the last traces of Niall from his lips as he does.

“The verdict, your honor?” Niall squints his eyes in thought before finally shrugging.

“Inconclusive, I’m afraid we’re just going to have to keep at it until we yield some results.”

Shaking his head in amusement, Zayn reaches forward to tweak Niall’s nipple. “You’re such an idiot.”

Niall yelps, rubbing at his poor innocent nipple but he’s smiling, looking happier then Zayn has ever seen him when he sing-songs: “But you fancy me anyway.”

He doesn’t know how it happened, much like with a few other aspects in his life but just like with them, Zayn’s done questioning. He’s ready to live in the moment and take whatever life throws at him as it comes—if he does so with Niall at his side well he’ll just consider that a bonus.

“Yeah, I do.”

<><><> 

It’s been almost two months since Louis went off the deep end forcing his mates to stage an intervention, Iceman has made a full recovery back to his old self again—well not exactly he was a lot more vocal now that super suits were no longer required though some people still preferred to stay anonymous like Hozier, Average Joe and a few others.

These days he was free to act like himself—more _Niall-like_ the way he knew just what buttons of Zayn’s to push riling him up right there in front of everyone, sometimes it was all in good fun and Zayn could even laugh about it but other times like now when Niall was playing dirty—whispering filthy promises in Zayn’s ear getting him all hot and bothered only to leave him to sit through the hour long meeting with a semi. It's during those times that Zayn feels the urge to strangle that pretty little neck of his.

Niall goes to sit back in his seat with a smirk but Zayn catches him by the collar of his shirt drawing him back in for a quick kiss that had the blonde grinning against his mouth.

Harry pretended to throw up. “Christ, think I preferred it when the two of you were at each other’s throats trying to kill each other instead of leaving love bites.”

“I think it’s sweet.” Liam cooed, fawning over them from across the circle.

Niall scoffed. “Oi like yer one to talk.” He countered, raising an eyebrow and looking pointedly at Harry and Liam’s clasped hands.

Flushing slightly, Harry waved him off with his free hand. “Oh hush, anyway we’re about to start the meeting so do you think you can keep it in your pants for the next hour or am I going to have to separate you two?”

It was Cher’s turn to let out a doubtful noise. “Don’t even think that’ll do it, you may need to hose those horn balls off…they’re like a pair of dogs in heat—can’t keep their bloody hands off each other.” Zayn can’t help but duck his head in embarrassment knowing Cher was referring to the time she walked into the rec room to find them practically dry humping on the communal couch.

“We were doing you a favor darling by letting you watch, next time we’re charging.” Niall says waggling his tongue at her.

Cher lets out a bark of laughter. “You may both be pretty—make quite a cute couple ya do but you’re not _that_ pretty.  Besides I’ve already got the prettiest in the world as my girl.” She reminded them pulling Jade’s chair closer to hers and throwing her leg over the winged beauty’s thigh.

“Enough guys…can we please get started now or did you want to discuss what happened in last week’s episode of Pretty Little Liars?”

“Well—”Eleanor started but Harry cut her off with a roll of his eyes.

“That was sarcasm El.”

“Oh poo!” She pouted, sitting back in her seat to cross her arms petulantly over her chest.

Louis threw his head back and cackled loudly, his voice echoing around the room—a sound that’s been dearly missed.

“And what’re you laughing at?” Harry asks, raising an eyebrow in mock seriousness.

Louis shook his head still laughing. “Nothing just missed this is all.”

“Well if you showed up more often than this wouldn’t be an issue you know that whole missing thing goes both ways.”

The slighter boy in rolled up skinny jeans and a Black Sabbath t-shirt bowed his head, a fond little smile tugging at his lips. “Yeah I’m working on it Lee.”

“Do you care to share with the group or is it still too soon?” Harry asked, trying to keep the meeting on track.

Louis drew in a huge breath and surprised everyone by nodding his head once.

“I think, actually I think I’m ready.”

“That’s great Lou, take your time babe…we know how tough this is, we all support you.” Everyone in the room murmurs their agreements, letting him know how proud they are of him which helps to give him the strength he needs to speak.

Louis clears his throat, tucking one foot under his thigh before licking his lips. “Hi, I’m Louis and I’ve been questioning the cause for a while now as many of you know, and recently I lost my way completely I thought that abandoning my calling and going rogue was the answer to all my problems—never claimed to be a genius.” He said with a self deprecating laugh.

“Thanks to you guys knocking some sense into me I realized that the life of a villain wasn’t the answer—unfortunately that realization came at the cost of a friend’s well being…” Turning to Niall Louis' throat clicks loudly when he swallows. “I am _so_ sorry mate.” 

“It’s all good Tommo, we’ve been through this enough times—you can stop beating yerself up about it. I’m doing great.” He reaches over to squeeze Zayn’s knee to prove it.

Louis cracks a half smile at the sight. “I know and I’m glad but my guilt says otherwise, but I’m working on it promise.”

“Have you returned to the cause, saved any innocents lately?” Harry asks, unconsciously tapping his pen against his clipboard

“I _have_ actually—it was sort of an accident, as you well know I haven’t yet recommitted myself to superheroing, haven’t even looked at my super suit since that day and I only come to every other meeting because it’s still hard to hear about…you know.”

“But the other day by complete accident I happened by this absolute dickhead gay bashing this bloke wearing a fancy top with hearts on it, only recognized it because it reminded me of the one you’ve got Harry—he was carrying a man purse or summat which is probably what caught the basher’s attention. It turned out it _was_ your top and the bloke wearing it was Nick.”

“Grimmy?”

“The one and only, I wasn’t even suited up when I raced over at full speed knocking the guy to the ground and started wailing on him, hitting him all over, everywhere I could reach. I wasn’t even thinking about what I was doing, must’ve zoned out and was just taking it all out on this piece of scum—I reckon I might’ve killed him the way I was going but Nick bless him he stopped me.”

Louis gulps; his throat threatening to close up on him and can’t fight the smile of endearment that finds its way to his face.

“Here this dope is dripping blood from a busted lip courtesy of the douche in question one of his eyes already swelling shut and yet he stopped me from possibly finishing him off. Pulled me off him and told me it was alright, that the guy couldn’t hurt us anymore and silly me collapsed right in his arms in a sobbing mess—finally letting it all go in front of _Nick bloody Grimshaw_ of all people…talk about hitting an all time low.” He shakes his head and makes a playful ‘why me’ gesture.

“But it helped, hell if I know how but crying and then talking things out with him over coffee and these fancy French pastry things he ordered for me at this posh café he took me to—not my usual cup of tea mind you but I admit I enjoyed the pastries. All of it _helped_. Each of the weeks that I didn’t show up here, I’ve been off having my own sort of one on one uh… _sessions_ with him.”

Harry’s eyes widen comically. “Private _sessions_ …are you and Grimmy seeing each other?!??” He asked glancing over at Eleanor for her reaction but all she does is smile fondly at Louis, leaning into the arm Ed has casually slung over the back of her chair.

Louis bites his lip and nods. “Sort of? I’m not proud of myself as it is so please don’t make this into an issue Haz.”’

Harry’s lips curls and he’s not happy. “Fuck that, I talk to him on a daily basis and he never mentioned this not once…he said that he was trying to woo someone like two weeks ago but I never would’ve suspected you were the woo _-ee_.”

Louis crossed his arms over his chest, his foot tapping against the linoleum floor.

“Have you quite finished Harold? I asked him not to say anything, wanted to be the one to tell you.”

“And you decide to do it in _group?”_ Harry staggers, arms flailing around in disbelief.

“I hadn’t _planned_ on it no, but I was on a roll…besides I’m sharing my healing progress and Nick and our budding something-ship is a big part of that.”

Harry brings a hand up to rub at his temple. “But you two can’t _stand_ each other; you would literally recoil at the mention of his name and then threaten my bollocks if I tried to invite the both of you anywhere.”

“Well he’s quite a ponce who never shuts up and thinks he’s better than everyone but now that I’ve found another use for his mouth he’s not so bad.”

Harry quickly cups his hands over his ears childishly chanting “Lala I can’t hear you please shut up lalala.”

Louis chuckles but mimes locking his lips and Liam gently pulls Harry’s hands from his ears. “Babe, he’s stopped, it’s safe.”

Louis rolled his eyes looking mighty pleased with himself. “Long story short I’m doing much better and while I’m not ready to return to superheroing full stop, rescuing Nick’s helped remind me why I started in the first place—all the good I’ve done and for the first time in a while I want to do that again, feel that way again.”

Despite his uneasiness at the news of Louis and Nick’s relationship Harry can’t help but clap his hands in praise. “Lou that’s wonderful!”

“Yeah thanks, uh that’s all I’ve got.” Louis admits fidgeting in his seat “if someone wants to take the proverbial baton?”

Harry turns to Dr. Fluke and Captain Calamity “Luke, Calum you live together have you got something to say?” He jokes completely stone-faced.

“Um…no?” Calum says with a sheepish laugh. “Except that I totally got my arse handed to me the other day by this dude I found trying to steal a car…”

Harry’s jaw drops. “Let me get this straight you’re a superhero and you got thrashed by a civilian?”

Calum shrugs, hanging his head in shame. “How was I supposed to know he knew Kung fu? Right so there I was pinned to the wall with this bloke’s foot at my throat…”

<><><> 

Zayn used to be the very first one to leave after group let out but these days he was one of the last people to go home, staying to help Niall, Harry and Liam clean up—putting the chairs away, and wrapping up any food left over knowing that it was pretty much going to help the survive the upcoming exam week.

When they’re finished up the four of them trudge upstairs to find Louis sat up on the counter, feet swinging as Nick did a bit of last minute tidying up around the shop.

“Lou sweet heart please, would you give it a rest if you break the glass of my cabinet I _will_ make you pay for it.” He sighs in an all too familiar exasperation that comes with being associated with Louis “bloody hobbit-sized menace.” He mutters the latter bit just under his breath and freezes when he meets Harry’s eyes, gulps loudly but all Harry says is a stiff:

“We’re off now, same time next week yeah?”

Nick coughs into his fist. “Course, though I’ll probably hear from you sooner than that right? Perhaps tomorrow, we can do lunch—the uh…four of us? Six if you lot wanna come too.” He says noticing Zayn and Niall stood near the door.

Harry brings his hands up to the sides of his face in semi-despair. “Oh my god did you just ask me and Liam out on a double date? This is too weird I have—I have to not be here.”

“Come on Haz it’s not that bad is it?” Nick insists reaching out for his friend but stops when Harry shakes his head and moves away from him.

“Not here, I’m not here right now.” He insists, rushing out the door without so much as a wave goodbye.

They barely get a few feet before Harry stops to double over, resting his hand on his knees as he pants looking for breath that doesn’t seem to be there.

“Babe your inhaler.” Liam reminds him and Harry nods, reaches into his jacket and takes two slow puffs, feeling himself relax as his chest opens up again.

He glances back at the record shop to see that Nick has moved so that he’s stood between Louis' legs, both of them still swinging so that his heels knock against the glass but Nick doesn’t look as bothered by the fact as he’s too busy being pulled into a heated snog.

“You have to admit they sort of make sense…” Liam whispers at his side, also watching their friend’s public display and whirls around to face him, speaking with total conviction.

“Of _course_ they make sense—I’ve been telling Louis that practically since the day I met him, that I had this lovely friend that I think he’d really get on with but at the time he was with El and by the time they finally ended things Louis had already decided that Nick was pure evil and needed to be stopped—even accused Nick of being a villain for three whole weeks after the day they met.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“I don’t _know_ it’s just wigging me out seeing them getting alone—more than getting along, it’s almost unnatural at this point like a cat and a dog falling in love...” Zayn can’t help but laugh at the mental picture that paints which of course draws Harry’s attention onto him, “Don’t know what you think is so funny I thought the same thing with you two.” He states smugly, gesturing between Zayn and Niall.

“I saw this coming long before the two of you bedside confessioned each other, used to think there had to be more there for the two of you to _care_ so bloody much and I was right.”

“Pssh well I for one will take our ‘unnatural love’ over you and Lee’s boring overly polite missionary love life any day…I bet the kinkiest thing the two of you have tried is keeping the lights on.” Niall said, blindly reaching over to wrap his arm around Zayn’s waist, pulling him closer.

“Ouch babe, you don’t hold back do ya?” Zayn said, sounding oddly proud of his boyfriend.

“Guys can we not talk about each other’s bedroom habits?” Liam spoke up suddenly looking wholly uncomfortable with the subject matter. “Some things are just not meant to be shared among mates.”

Ignoring him Harry stepped forward eyes dark, looking serious and very unlike himself as he meets Niall’s eyes head on. “Honey you’ve never had mind blowing sex until you’ve had it with someone who can make you feel like you’re orgasming long before it actually happens…”

“Harry please!” Liam groans turning pink from his neck up to the tips of his ears.

Zayn stepped forward as well, looking just as menacing and self assured as he too pitches his voice so it’s low and maybe sounds a bit dangerous when he says: “Yeah well you know how some people use ice cubs to spice things up in bed? Well imagine having fingers that are literally cold as ice inside you, opening you up nice and tortuously slo—”

Harry’s hands flew up to cup his ears once more.

“No stop lalala, Lee-yum make him stop!”

**Author's Note:**

> Title from: Stand up by Trapt
> 
> (in case you were curious)
> 
> Zayn Malik/Pyro - Pyrokinesis  
> Niall Horan/Iceman – Cryokinesis  
> Liam Payne/Magnun Force - Empathic Manipulation + Force-Field Generation  
> Louis Tomlinson/Speed Demon - Super Speed  
> Eleanor Calder/Lady Vertigo - Teleportation  
> Ed Sheeran/ The Chameleon - Camouflage  
> Andrew Hozier-Byrne/Hozier - Elasticity  
> Calum Hood/Captian Calamity - Shapeshifting  
> Luke Hemmings/ Dr. Fluke (borrowed from the Don't stop music video) - Invisibility  
> Cher Lloyd/ Miz Mirage - Illusion Manipulation  
> Jade Thirlwall/Raven - Wing Manifestation  
> Niall "Bressie" Breslin/Brickhead – Stone Mimicry  
> Leigh-Anne Pinnock/Madame Prudence - Precognition  
> Matt Cardle/Average Joe - Telepathy  
> Justin Bieber/ Bizzy - Telekinesis  
> **powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki**


End file.
